Metals in Medicine

Iron Makes Our blood red

In our red blood cells, we have a protein called haemoglobin. Each haemoglobin protein contains 4 iron atoms that bind to oxygen. This is how oxygen is carried round our blood stream.

Iron is what makes our blood red. Some living things have different metals in their transport system, for example, crabs & crustaceans use copper in their transport system which gives them blue blood, and sea shrimps have green blood as they use the metal vanadium. Different metals give different colours.


A horseshoe crab donating blood Horseshoe crab blood is blue as it contains copper. The blood is used in research and the crabs are unharmed.	Fake blood Adding a solution of iron to ferricyanide gives a red blood colour which is often used as fake blood on the stage

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Metals Are Essential for Life - Lithium treats mental illness - Carbonate - Why Are Fizzy Drinks Bad for our Teeth? - Iron compounds are essential to life - Iron Makes Our blood red - How Do We Get Energy From Oxygen? - Iron is Used to Make Steel - Platinum is Used in Treating Cancer - Cis and Trans? - Titanium is used to make hip replacements - Barium is used to see inside our bodies - Lead: a toxic metal that protects us from x-rays

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