TransformerRobot Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 What health requirements would there be for creatures that helium in their blood? I've read that liquid helium is a very, very cold substance, and that got me thinking that if a certain creature had that substance in it's bloodstream it would need a lot of heat to stay alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arete Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) With a boiling point of −268.93 °C, (the lowest recorded temperature on earth is −89.2 °C for reference), helium is only in liquid form at temperatures which are too low for vertebrates to live at, so no known organism could have liquid helium in its blood. Helium in the bloodstream would generally be present in a dissolved gaseous state, the same as other gases, rather than a liquid. As a diver, sometimes we use helium as a component of breathing gas on deep dives, as breathing nitrogen at high partial pressure has a narcotic effect and too high a partial pressure of oxygen can cause convulsions and unconsciousness. As a result, I'm sure I and many other divers have had a much higher than normal quotient of dissolved helium in our bloodstreams. One issue is that helium dissolves into and out of blood and tissues faster then nitrogen, so additional decompression is needed to off-gas on the way up to avoid decompression sickness. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimix_(breathing_gas) Edited April 11, 2012 by Arete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Then what is helium's temperature when it's a gas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arete Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 > −268.93 °C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the asinine cretin Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 With a boiling point of −268.93 °C, (the lowest recorded temperature on earth is −89.2 °C for reference), helium is only in liquid form at temperatures which are too low for vertebrates to live at, so no known organism could have liquid helium in its blood. Helium in the bloodstream would generally be present in a dissolved gaseous state, the same as other gases, rather than a liquid. As a diver, sometimes we use helium as a component of breathing gas on deep dives, as breathing nitrogen at high partial pressure has a narcotic effect and too high a partial pressure of oxygen can cause convulsions and unconsciousness. As a result, I'm sure I and many other divers have had a much higher than normal quotient of dissolved helium in our bloodstreams. One issue is that helium dissolves into and out of blood and tissues faster then nitrogen, so additional decompression is needed to off-gas on the way up to avoid decompression sickness. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimix_(breathing_gas) Fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Okay, then what substance would the creature have in it's blood that would require it to get lots of warmth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arete Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Okay, then what substance would the creature have in it's blood that would require it to get lots of warmth? None, to my knowledge. Any inert substance is going to be at ambient temperature. Some substances facilitate heat transfer more readily than others. For example, helium loses and gains heat about 6x as fast as air. This makes it a poor insulator and in diving, most divers in cold water with trimix will take an independent argon gas source to fill drysuits with due to its thermal inertia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Well what elements have a melting point of 30 degrees Celsius or more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzwood Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Everything that is solid at temperatures below 30 °C and won't decompose before it melts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Everything that is solid at temperatures below 30 °C and won't decompose before it melts. Can you give me some examples? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzwood Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Iron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Then what is helium's temperature when it's a gas? its gaseous temperature can be anything between its boiling point and its ionization temperature. there isn't really any limit on it other than those just like everything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Iron. So if they had a lot of iron in their blood would they need to live in a hot climate to stay warm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzwood Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 You forget that WE have iron in our blood. However, ours is ionized and will therefore stay in a solution of water. (Yes I know it's a bit more complicated than that.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 You forget that WE have iron in our blood. However, ours is ionized and will therefore stay in a solution of water. (Yes I know it's a bit more complicated than that.) Oh, right, isn't that why our blood is red? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanrga Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Oh, right, isn't that why our blood is red? Blood is red due to hemoglobin molecules. These molecules contain iron ions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 Blood is red due to hemoglobin molecules. These molecules contain iron ions What percentage of our blood is iron then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanrga Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 What percentage of our blood is iron then? Normal hemoglobin values vary according to age and sex, pregnancy, the altitude where you live, if you smoke... If you donate blood they will do you a test for free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransformerRobot Posted April 15, 2012 Author Share Posted April 15, 2012 What if the creature had 95% iron in their blood, or would that be an unhealthy percentage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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