Oddbean

With the new #COVID vaccine approved, a reminder that we’re all indebted to the ancient & wondrous horseshoe crab. Their blue blood contains Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) which clumps at contact with bacterial toxins. They are caught for their blood to test sterility of medical equipment & injections. Unfortunately the harvest is unsustainable & populations are in decline. An effective synthetic substitute has been around for 2 decades & we just need the biomedical industry to switch. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/060/393/213/606/470/original/b8ecb028b7bd2950.png

@b5cdaf1a This is so strange that had it not come from a generally reliable source, I would have doubted it. That said, I Google`ed anyway, and as it turns out, this is very much true. Thanks for sharing this little nugget of information.

@b5cdaf1a If I recall, horseshoe crabs are an ancient lineage that may be related to (though not descending from) Trilobites. They've been on this planet a hell of a long time, survived many mass extinctions, and now are in danger because one species that should know better continues to exploit them.

@b5cdaf1a Don't they take about 33% of their blood then just dump them back into the ocean? It's amazing more don't die. :( I hadn't heard there was a synthetic substitute. Is it economically viable? Not prohibitively expensive?

I mean, earthworms have been stepped on and used since we had agriculture. And then there’s Vermicomposting. Is it that they don’t look ‘cute’ that we don’t care about ‘Earthworm Rights’?