• Question: Why Is our blood red?

    Asked by 842aged37 to Siana, Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara on 12 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by leah.wardle....
    • Photo: Siana Jones

      Siana Jones answered on 12 Nov 2015:


      Blood is red because it contains haemoglobin which has an iron group that binds oxygen and carries it round the body. Haemoglobin is a protein and the subunit, haeme, is the part that makes blood red.

      Nice question:)
      S

    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 17 Nov 2015:


      Hi, Sianas answer is right – the haem part of haemoglobin – the bit in the red blood cells that carries the oxygen is a red colour because it contains iron. If you combine iron and oxygen you get a red chemical – think rust, only it’s in your blood so not quite the same….

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