By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Crabs Horseshoe crabs are fascinating creatures, and happen to be absolutely critical to the pharmaceutical industry and, thus, the global response to coronavirus. Each year pharmaceutical companies obtain 500,000 horseshoe crabs, harvest their blood, and toss them back in the ocean. They do this ridiculous thing because their blood is the only known source of limulus amebocyte lysate, which detects bacterial contamination of sterile drugs. Because of this cumbersome process, the
Numlock News: July 6, 2020 • Crab Blood, Flash Games, Campers
Numlock News: July 6, 2020 • Crab Blood…
Numlock News: July 6, 2020 • Crab Blood, Flash Games, Campers
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Crabs Horseshoe crabs are fascinating creatures, and happen to be absolutely critical to the pharmaceutical industry and, thus, the global response to coronavirus. Each year pharmaceutical companies obtain 500,000 horseshoe crabs, harvest their blood, and toss them back in the ocean. They do this ridiculous thing because their blood is the only known source of limulus amebocyte lysate, which detects bacterial contamination of sterile drugs. Because of this cumbersome process, the