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View Full Version : Competitive white blood cell "tournaments"


TruCelt
02-11-2011, 11:44 AM
Way cool, I want to play!

From: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/11/133655669/my-neutrophils-can-kick-your-white-blood-cells-butt?ps=sh_sthdl


One part of the show is an exhibit called Blood Wars by American artist Kathy High (http://kathyhigh.com/about/). She takes samples of people's blood (well, actually a phlebotomist does that for her) and spins them down to extract the white cells.

The cells are stained different colors to identify who they came from in preparation for battle under a microscope. In the elimination tournament, the winner's cells advance to face blood from another contestant until a champion is determined. Watch the videos for more the art and science of the project.


I would so much rather date a guy who won at this than the HS Quarterback.

Cornelius Tuggerson
02-11-2011, 03:33 PM
This is excellent, I wonder how I would do.

tr0psn4j
02-11-2011, 04:45 PM
That's pretty cool!

markdash
02-11-2011, 04:52 PM
I fancy myself as having a strong immune system, but I wonder if that would translate at all to this kind of competition.

wheresmymind
02-11-2011, 06:16 PM
Holy crap, I'm pretty sure the phlebotomist is a guy I used to work with!

thelurkinghorror
02-11-2011, 07:05 PM
Two leukocyte enter, one leukocyte leave.

notfrommensa
02-11-2011, 08:18 PM
Interesting. My immediate questions is:

Is there valid hypothesis that Type AB Blood will be the strongest and Type O will be the weakest (or vice versa)

And does this 'logic' hold true:

Suppose there are three Blood Samples. (X, Y, Z). If 'X' beats 'Y', and 'Y' beats 'Z', is it a valid conclusion that X beats Z.