![]() So companies use this not as an ingredient in the vaccines or in the drugs, but as a way to test to see whether those products are safe.ĮISNER: It's getting bigger. And horseshoe crab blood is better than almost anything else on the planet at detecting the toxins. ![]() So vaccines, drugs, medical devices, anything that's put directly into the human body, that has to be sterile. So we take horseshoe crabs from the ocean for their blood - which is sky blue, by the way - because scientists discovered that that blood would clot when it detected bacterial toxins.īARBER: Yeah, I've heard they're used in the medical field. But humans want something from the crabs too, and that's their blood.ĮISNER: Yeah. They fly north and they stop along the same beaches because some of them want to eat the eggs of the horseshoe crab. And migratory shorebirds come from the south of the globe. They mate in these giant mounds all along the Atlantic coast. And once a year, though, they come up from the bottom onto the beaches to mate. ![]() They spend most of their lives at the bottom of the ocean.ĮISNER: Yes. They are these prehistoric animals that look like stingray-shaped crabs, and they can live up to 30 years. ![]() Horseshoe crabs are one of the few animal species that have survived all five of the major mass extinctions that have happened on planet Earth.īARBER: I love horseshoe crabs. So for this first story, I want to take you back millions of years.ĮISNER: Hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the planet. Hey, Chiara.ĬHIARA EISNER, BYLINE: Hey, Regina. Hey, SHORT WAVErs, Regina Barber here with SHORT WAVE first-timer, Chiara Eisner, a reporter on NPR's investigations unit. EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: You're listening to SHORT WAVE from NPR. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |