PitchingCheese

Star Trek Science Rant:

Seeing as Star Trek: Into Darkness has been recently released (and I must add that it was an incomprehensibly fantastic film), I figured that this post was relevant.

It has been said that Spock, along with all other Vulcans have blood that is colored green. I read on a Trekkie site that this is allegedly due to copper. Now in real life, spiders, horseshoe crabs and most other arthropods have blue blood due to a protein called Hemocyanin (as opposed to Hemoglobin, an iron-based protein found in the blood of most vertebrates).  Hemocyanin isn’t as efficient an oxygen carrier as Hemoglobin, so therefore arthropods that have this protein in there blood cannot move as quickly as those with the iron-based protein.

Biology lessons aside, if Vulcans have copper-based blood, wouldn’t it be more of a blue-ish color rather than green? I suppose the protein would have to be Hemocyanin for this to work, but that isn’t specified within any source.

Suppose that Vulcans did have the Hemocyanin protien in their blood. According to the series, members of the Vulcan race are much faster and stronger than human beings. So, that wouldn’t be very logical considering that organisms with that protein are usually considerably slower than ones with Hemoglobin, which is what humans have. Perhaps the “copper-based” green blood is based on some fictional protein that Gene Roddenberry invented on his own.

Any additional thoughts?

What happened here at the TD Garden tonight was, in all senses of the word, unexpected.

When we were down 4-1 with minutes remaining in the 3rd period, I don’t think there was a soul in the Boston fanbase that thought our team had much of a shot at winning. Even Jack Edwards found himself doubting the Bruins’ chances, which is a rarity.

Then Nathan Horton scored.

Despite this, myself, and many other Bruins fans still felt that this goal wouldn’t change much, seeing the situation our team was in. I felt great for Horton though, as it would be fitting for him to score possibly the last goal of our season. I knew the empty net was going to be pulled early, considering the score.

Then Milan Lucic, and Patrice Bergeron scored, respectively.

The sound in my house, along with the TD Garden, was extremely loud. I could not believe what had just happened. To be honest, I didn’t think we were going to win it in overtime. I figured that the Leafs had enough skill left in them to pull off a win. In many ways, they did. Overtime could have gone either way.

Bergeron scores in OT to allow the Bruins to move on to Round 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Thank you, Boston Bruins, for never giving up.

Best of luck to the Bruins tomorrow night. I congratulate the Leafs on their win!

I also want to congratulate the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs on being extremely fervent and supportive. I have a great deal of respect for you folks. Congrats on the win.

Here’s hoping for a quick recovery for Mark Frasier.

You know you’re a Bruins fan if…

You win Red Sox tickets in a contest, sell them, and use the money to purchase Bruins playoff tickets.

If the Bruins make it to the second round, I SWEAR TO THE HOCKEY GODS that I am going to a Playoff practice at Ristuccia Arena.