I am making an alien race and need help with their biology

[ChanYeol]

I would like a reason why their blood is Cooper/ Rose gold color.
They evolve from a dinosaur bird like creature but in their current timeline they are human looking. One of their most strange characteristic is they got cooper looking veins and their blood is rose-gold color. Which gave the ancient Greeks the idea they were gods. But i would like to have a scientific reason for their blood being that color. thank you.

 

[Vanadium 50]

What's wrong with "their blood chemistry makes it look gold-colored"? Your readers aren't expecting lectures on oxidation states and Lewis diagrams.

 

[ChanYeol]

i know but if I were to make like biology book for them I kind of would like to know. I like those type of extra details. ^_^

 

[Vanadium 50]

if I were to make like biology book

Who wants to read a biology book?

And why do you want to write one if you don't know the content?

 

[ChanYeol]

i am doing a full world building, all of it. I'm starting with the planet and creating a fictional history for it. Geography and everything, including the biology of the main race of thinking creatures. I want it to feel like is real.
The stories come after.

 

[Algr]

There is a limit to what other people can help you with in this regard. Even if we give you the names of some molecules or something, doing anything interesting with the knowledge would require you understand some chemistry.

So the best thing you could do as an author is to learn about chemistry (and perhaps biology) directly. That way you will be able to write what you know, and have it interact with your world in logical and interesting ways. You won't need a PHD or anything, but a night class at your local community college could open up a world of ideas and opportunities for you. I find this stuff fascinating. Based on your ideas in your first post, I think you will too.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Well, it's up to you. But you've set yourself up to an endless task, one that doesn't advance your story. And besides, as Stephane Mallarme said, "To suggest is to create. To define is to kill."

 

[Hornbein]

Gosh! This forum is just overflowing with helpfulness.

 

[Hornbein]

The way blood works is that hemoglobin molecules pick up oxygen, turn red, deliver the oxygen to the cells and back to turn blue. That's why your veins are blue. Hemoglobin has an atom of iron at the center which binds to the oxygen.

Here's a list of the colors of oxides of elements. No gold colored oxides for the elements, but you can make up some molecule with this property. With nickel maybe, or cadmium, or whatever has a name you like.

 

[Enigman]

He wants rose-gold or copper though, not just gold. Plasma without any hemoglobin is yellow, so is certain varieties of hemolymph. Certain menses can be kinda close to rose-gold, or at least a pink close to it, I think : https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324848
So you might not have to get a different biochemistry going for them altogether, just a different ratio of lymphatic fluid, plasma and hemoglobin than is typical. Some freak mutation that changed the color should be explanation enough unless you want to make the blood be adaptive. In which case being mistaken for gods, does seem adaptive.

 

[256bits]

The way blood works is that hemoglobin molecules pick up oxygen, turn red, deliver the oxygen to the cells and back to turn blue

Blood never turns blue in color - red, dark red, brown ( such as a blood stain ).
The veins look blue due to reflection and absorption of light of the darker red blood and of the skin.

Perhaps the OP can look at the chemical makeup of the alien skin, and/or plasma, to make the appearance gold in color.
Take for instance the color that is associated with a chunk of gold.
Gold nanoparticles do not appear in the gold color as the bulk material, but can be red, green black,...
https://nanocomposix.com/pages/gold-nanoparticles-optical-properties

 

[Algr]

He wants rose-gold or copper though, not just gold. Plasma without any hemoglobin is yellow, so is certain varieties of hemolymph. Certain menses can be kinda close to rose-gold, or at least a pink close to it, I think : https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324848
So you might not have to get a different biochemistry going for them altogether, just a different ratio of lymphatic fluid, plasma and hemoglobin than is typical. Some freak mutation that changed the color should be explanation enough unless you want to make the blood be adaptive. In which case being mistaken for gods, does seem adaptive.

Technobabble molecules.

 

[phinds]

The stories come after.

Terrible idea. The story is always the most important element. Interesting technical details about history / biology / politics / etc will never make up for a bad/boring story.

 

[bob012345]

The way blood works is that hemoglobin molecules pick up oxygen, turn red, deliver the oxygen to the cells and back to turn blue. That's why your veins are blue. Hemoglobin has an atom of iron at the center which binds to the oxygen.

So if a vein is cut does one bleed blue blood?

 

[phinds]

So if a vein is cut does one bleed blue blood?

Google is your friend
https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-veins-appear-blue-blood-red

 

[bob012345]

Terrible idea. The story is always the most important element. Interesting technical details about history / biology / politics / etc will never make up for a bad/boring story.

I don't think it's helpful to tell someone else what their creative process should be like. If an author puts that much effort into creating a world first who are we to tell them their stories in that world would be bad? I don't think it's a terrible idea.

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm a little curious what the OP means by "gold colour". The "colour" gold is only a small portion due to its hue and a large portion due to its fluid metallic appearance.

Here's metallic copper rose gold:

But here's the straight up colour:

So, does the blood has a metallic sheen? Or is it just a pinky brown?

 

[Vanadium 50]

If an author puts that much effort into creating a world first who are we to tell them their stories in that world would be bad? I don't think it's a terrible idea.

How many books a year do you buy that you would say have an excellent setting - at the level discussed, more or less that of a textbook - but a lousy plot? And how often after reading one do you want to buy another one?

Plot, setting, character, point of view, theme. If you have a fabulous setting and fall short on the rest, do you have something people want to buy?

 

[Algr]

but a lousy plot? And how often after reading one do you want to buy another one?

I would suspect that a potentially good plot could disintegrate if the author has to make last minute changes due to someone pointing out a flaw based on how the world is. A coherent, well defined background might not be the reason you like a story, but like a good foundation, it is necessary to making a story work. For myself, I think ChanYeol is taking a reasonable approach.

Maybe their blood is just like human blood, but they have atoms of actual gold in their veins? So they leave planet, and suddenly everyone wants to kill them.

Dramatically, what is the purpose of having rose-gold colored blood? Spock's green blood was an offhand detail that was never very important.

 

[BillTre]

This discussion could benefit from a look at the diversity of blood colors known in earthly animals.
Here is a link to a brief article on that.

In addition, there are different physiological conditions that can lead to color variations. There are more than just oxygenated and unoxygenated. Blood carrying carbon monoxide is a much brighter red for example.

Colors of blood vessels could be affected by the tissues between the blood and your eyes. This for example has a big impact on the perceived colors of goldfish. This results from light passing through tissues after bouncing off deeper tissue layers.

Combine all these and you could get a not unreasonable palette of not unreasonable possible colors.

 

[bob012345]

How many books a year do you buy that you would say have an excellent setting - at the level discussed, more or less that of a textbook - but a lousy plot? And how often after reading one do you want to buy another one?

Plot, setting, character, point of view, theme. If you have a fabulous setting and fall short on the rest, do you have something people want to buy?

These are strawman arguments. Every author has their own way. Let them. That's all I'm saying.

 

[DaveC426913]

A coherent, well defined background might not be the reason you like a story, but like a good foundation, it is necessary to making a story work.

Agree. But if that were the OP's intent, I would advise he start with the science and end with the outcome, rather than trying to jam a square peg in a round hole.

If it is critical to the OP's story that blood be rose copper gold then the OP should avoid too detailed an explanation since armchair chemists will recognize it's a contrived story hack The more he explains, the more apparent the contrivance.

The OP would be better to build out the biology first, have the blood colour be a logical consequence of that, and then work the story plot around that.

To summarize. My suggestion is that the OP choose either:
- realism: go with plausible science: build the biology first (which is part of the world-building), figure out its impact on the plot
or
- drama: go with hand-waving science that gets you the plot effect you want, and don't explain the details too much.

 

[bob012345]

I think it would be beneficial to read @ChanYeol 's profile and possibly correct some of the posts above.

 

[Hornbein]

So if a vein is cut does one bleed blue blood?

The iron immediately picks up oxygen so the blood is red.

 

[Lren Zvsm]

The way blood works is that hemoglobin molecules pick up oxygen, turn red, deliver the oxygen to the cells and back to turn blue. That's why your veins are blue. Hemoglobin has an atom of iron at the center which binds to the oxygen.

Here's a list of the colors of oxides of elements. No gold colored oxides for the elements, but you can make up some molecule with this property. With nickel maybe, or cadmium, or whatever has a name you like.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-...-4-what-color-would-their-blood-be-180978261/

 

[DaveC426913]

So if a vein is cut does one bleed blue blood?

The iron immediately picks up oxygen so the blood is red.

No.
Unoxygenated blood is dark red.
Oxygenated blood is bright red.

Arteries and veins are also red. The appearance of blue is an artifact of how they appear when seen through our skin, not because they are actually blue.

 

[phinds]

Unoxygenated blood is dark red.
Oxygenated blood is bright red.

Arteries and veins are also red. The appearance of blue is an artifact of how they appear when seen through our skin, not because they are actually blue.

 

[Lren Zvsm]

I would like a reason why their blood is Cooper/ Rose gold color.
They evolve from a dinosaur bird like creature but in their current timeline they are human looking. One of their most strange characteristic is they got cooper looking veins and their blood is rose-gold color. Which gave the ancient Greeks the idea they were gods. But i would like to have a scientific reason for their blood being that color. thank you.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-...-4-what-color-would-their-blood-be-180978261/

 

[EventHorizon]

According to the linked article, a couple of people in the past actually had golden blood.

TL;DR Summary of Article: Golden blood is Rh-null blood (lacks all 61 of the possible antigens in the Rh system) and it is very dangerous to live with it especially since very few people have it.

It is also possible to have copper based blood in the story: animals such as arthropods (Arthropoda) and molluscs (Mollusca) have copper based blood: in this case the protein molecule hemocyanin carries oxygen to cells in mammals and other animals; when the blood circulates through the animal, it is clear, but when exposed to the air it turns bluish. I know that you are asking for copper colored blood, but I think that other transition metals would also have similar properties.

 

[stefan r]

If you just need gold color for religious belief then check out the rufous hummingbird and the gold beetle.

For both "god like" and insane coloring check out the cuttlefish. They have chromophores and iridiphores. Some cuttlefish hypnotize crabs with crazy iridescent light shows.