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The Four Humours

March 11, 2011 at 10:48 am
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Once upon a time (from early Greek and Roman physicians to the late 19th century), “blood-letting,” now known as phlebotomy, was a very popular practice...


Really Big Hearts

February 11, 2011 at 11:28 am
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center When your heart is all aflutter, who do you resemble most? Romeo & Juliet? Lady Chatterley? Anais Nin and half of Paris? Or possibly a...


Why Am I This Type?

February 4, 2011 at 12:36 pm
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center This is one of several questions that we’re often asked by community members. Our ABO (blood type) identity, whether we’re O, A, B, or AB,...


Groundhog Sees Shadow of His A & B Antibodies

February 2, 2011 at 10:07 am
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center What does that mean?? Is there a blizzard coming? Cyclone? Mongoose? Groundhogs don’t even see very well so who knows why we rely on them...


Mooootations

January 28, 2011 at 10:28 am
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Here’s something interesting about blood types. Humans have 8 major blood types (although we also have hundreds of lesser-known mutations or alleles that are very...


Our Inner Ocean

January 21, 2011 at 10:00 am
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Did you ever wonder what plasma and sea water have in common? Considering it’s our “inner ocean” and that life may have originated in the...


Type A Cats

January 7, 2011 at 2:22 pm
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Cat blood is designated as either type A, type B, and rarely type AB. Type A is the most common blood type comprising 90-95% of...


How Long Do Red Blood Cells Live?

December 13, 2010 at 2:11 pm
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Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center A unit of red blood cells (RBCs) expires in 35 or 42 days because of the type of anticoagulant in the bag. But in real...


The Japanese Blood Drop

September 22, 2010 at 1:41 pm
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  By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Meet Kenketsu-chan (“blood donation girl”), Japan’s most well-known blood donation mascot. She is a little pixie with big shiny drops of blood for ears. Kenketsu-chan...