Horseshoe Crabs: Hey! Good Idea!
Updated: Dec 27, 2020
What is it about us humans that make us so short-term focused that we're practically blind on long-term consequences? Only humans can be so brilliant and stupid at the same time.
What am I talking about?
About those horseshoe crabs.
It's impossible to read about the creatures and not be impressed. These 'crabs' have lived for 450 million years and seen some truly monumental shit. Not only have they seen it, but they have survived it. Not only have they survived it, but they have lived through two major extinctions... more or less in their current form.
Imagine the natural history of the creature. Imagine the bragging rights this crab can claim. I mean, these guys don't just have a life story, they have bragging rights to a 450 million-year-old life story. They lived BEFORE the dinosaurs and they have lived AFTER the dinosaurs.
Moreover... they have lived that long in their current form.
Something must be really good about their form - wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you suspect? Tell this fact to any kid and the first thing the kid is bound to ask is - why? What is it about the funny horseshoe body of theirs that have helped them live through two major extinctions?
Something that has helped them survive a brutal half a billion years?
Unless of course, we put it all down to luck. Sheer. Dumb. Luck.
Luck? Really?
Can anyone be lucky for 450 million years?
No.
There is something about their immune system helps them live when others do not.
How many folks do you know who have had an injection at some point or other in their lives? Practically everyone. Vaccinations. Tetanus. MMR. God knows what else. How many folks do you know who have had a surgery to fix a broken hip or a joint or a shoulder or bad knee? Or who have had a cardiac pace maker inserted in his/her chest? Taken a flu shot at the start of the flu season? Everyone has had a basic set of vaccinations within months of our birth.
It so happens that all of these procedures - whether they be shots, vaccinations, intravenous solutions, medical devices in our bodies (or our animals' bodies - like dogs or cats or horses) are first checked for safety using the LAL test that comes from horseshoe crab blood.
Yep.
This crab's BLUE blood.
Imagine a friend who saved your life.
Imagine you turning around and killing that friend.
Well, that's what we're doing to this poor horseshoe crab.
This special creature helps us humans LIVE. But we are killing it. Yup. We're destroying the species - i.e., doing what TWO major extinctions did not do. Why are we so blind?
Next up: What is the LAL test? Why is it so important?
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