Horseshoe crab blood: miracle vaccine ingredient that's saved millions of lives

The image of those crabs bleeding out is pretty shocking even for someone like myself who hunts my own meat. Are they alive during this process?

Contrary to the title, the blood isn't used as a vaccine ingredient. It's used to test the vaccines for bacterial toxins.

They're absolutely fascinating prehistoric creatures, this is just another reminder why we don't want species to go extinct. Nature is the biggest inventor on this planet, not humans.

Radiolab had a nice podcast about this fascinating subject back in 2018 (re-aired July 2020): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wnycstudios.org&#x2F;podcasts&#x2F;radiolab&#x2F;articles&#x2F;baby-blue-blood-drive" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wnycstudios.org&#x2F;podcasts&#x2F;radiolab&#x2F;articles&#x2F;baby-...</a>

Depending on whether you were a bug nerd as a child, horseshoe crabs are either incredibly fascinating to look at or face hugger-level terrifying to look at.<p>Perhaps luckily for us all, vinegaroons don&#x27;t seem to have any medical applications.