25 September: Blood

The first successful blood transfusion using human blood was carried out on this date in 1818 by Dr James Blundell. 10 facts about blood:

1. Blood makes up 7% of a human's body weight. In terms of volume, that's about 9 pints/4.5 litres in the average woman's body and 12 pints/5.6 litres in the average man. Losing 20% of blood volume causes haemorrhagic shock, requiring blood transfusions.
2. What colour is blood? Plasma, the liquid blood cells float around in, is actually Yellow. The red colour comes from haemoglobin, which contains Iron, and the iron turns red when it comes into contact with oxygen. Veins seen through the skin appear blue, even though the blood inside them is red because of the way light filters through our skin.
3. Plasma is 90% water. Blood also contains white blood cells, platelets, hormones, electrolytes and nutrients. The human body contains about 0.2mg of Gold - which is mostly circulating in the blood. Red blood cells carry Oxygen to all the cells in the body; white cells play an important role in the immune system and platelets cause the blood to clot when the skin is cut.
4. The blood of most animals is red, too, but there are some exceptions. Squid, Octopuses, Spiders and crustaceans have blue blood because their blood has a lot of Copper in it. Where iron is turned red by oxygen, copper turns blue. A type of lizard called a skink has Green blood because its blood contains a lot of biliverdin, a substance produced by the liver. All animals, including us, produce this, but in most animals it gets sent to the intestines to be excreted. Skinks don't do that, so the green stuff stays in their body, making their blood green.
5. As well as delivering important substances to our cells, the blood also plays an important role in taking waste products away.
6. You're probably familiar with the blood groups, A,B, AB and O, but there are actually about 30 different blood groups. A and B are types of antigen which some people have in their blood. Type O has neither, and is the most common blood type in the world. Rhesus (Rh) is another antigen, so people can be Rh positive or Rh negative (positive is more common) and there's also a blood type called RzRz which is unique to Native Americans and Alaskans. On the whole, people of any race can have any blood type although B type blood is slightly more common among people of Asian descent.
7. A human adult has about 60,000 miles/100,000Km of blood vessels in their body.
8. There is one place in the human body where blood doesn't go and that is the cornea of the eye. Your cornea can extract oxygen directly from the air.
9. 2 million of your red blood cells die every second. Luckily, your bone marrow is producing new ones at the same rate. Red blood cells live for about 120 days.
10. In 1997, Saddam Hussein ordered a Quran to be written in blood. It's a sin for the Quran to come into contact with blood, but at the same time, the holy book must never be destroyed. Since Saddam was overthrown, no-one knows what to do with this book.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

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