It took me multiple takes to parse the garden-path sentence that is the headline, but I'm glad it caught my attention. Otherwise I might not have learnt that there is a species of horseshoe crab that inhabits the North American East coast. For some reason I always assumed they were only in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It took me a couple tries to parse as well. At first I thought "counting" was a verb, leading to the impression that a horseshoe crab had been taught to count and was now counting alongside New York's citizen scientists. I figured perhaps it had something to do with prior research on crab computing: https://phys.org/news/2012-04-scientists-crab-powered.html
Did this with my 7yo last year, as I’m always on the lookout for ways to get her interested in science and the environment. If a) your kid can (at least mostly) listen to and follow instructions, b) you are not going to let them just run amok, c) they can tolerate or even enjoy a long walk in the dark during which they will probably get wet, it’s a great time!
>“Everybody who’s had a vaccine, or a pacemaker, or a needle go in their body, they’ve been tested for bacteria. And so we all kind of owe [horseshoe crabs] a thank you,”
That's not sufficient. I suggest stop vampirizing a threatened species just so big pharma profits can soar while enabling you to extend your lifespan by an extra 3 years.
We used to get Insulin for diabetics from the pancreases of polar bears. A cruel practice that is no longer necessary with advances in bio technology. I believe we can learn to replicate the beneficial properties of Horseshoe crab blood artificially as well. Edit: Well it seems we already can. So why does the US continue torturing these animals?
> We used to get Insulin for diabetics from the pancreases of polar bears.
I think you mean pigs and cows? I don’t think there was much otherwise being done with the pancreases from the slaughterhouse other than making cat/dog food.
Them too. At least there are should be strong rules about the welfare of farm animals and minimising their suffering during slaughter. I hope for improvements in synthetic meat as well and think cell cultures could help with that. I can't live without a lot of tasty protein.
But those Horseshoe crabs are kept alive and bleeding constantly.
“
The blue blood of the horseshoe crab clots when it comes into contact with bacterial toxins, which helps technicians identify contaminated products. A synthetic alternative to the blood-derived testing ingredient, called limulus amoebocyte lysate, or LAL, was invented decades ago. Alternatives have since become mainstream; most of the east coast bleeding companies now also sell tests made with a synthetic, not just LAL, and the European Pharmacopoeia considered the synthetic ingredient equivalent to the crab-derived one in 2020. But since scientists at the U. S. Pharmacopeia had not yet done the same, drug companies that wanted to use them faced extra regulatory hurdles in the U.S.”
