/sci/ - Science & Math

>weak troll attempt.jpg

oh OP, you so crazy

Well the body does have several mechanisms to reduce iron back from it's oxidized(aka 'rusty') state.

Iron doesn't rust when its not covalently bonded with other metals.
2/10

>>1265265
>iron
>covalent bond with other metals

while this may rest on the technicalities of definition.

whatthefuckamireading.jpeg

>>1265253
IT DOES. THAT IS WHY IT IS RED AND HOW IT HOLDS OXYGEN.

>>1265289

Oh shi-

isn't rust the REASON our blood is red?

The iron molecules held by our heme groups are basically shielded from water. As in, they are held onto so tightly that not even a single fucking water molecule can go in and mess it up. Water rusts, after all.

Learn biochem if you want to really understand the mysteries of our bodies. They're not so mysterious at all actually and it's a pretty fucking nice peace of mind knowing in great detail what's going on in there, how and why.

>>1265289

Doesn't the O2 just get attached to the Fe atom instead of being reduced?

>>1265289
Bullshit! I know for a fact that's a lie!!

Your blood uses cobalt as an oxygen carrier and that's why it's blue in the body and red outside the body (bonds with nitrogen)

>>1265293
You mean hemoglobin?

It does rust. But it gets removed from the body when it rusts, and really dilute ruse looks yellow, which is why your pee is that color.

>>1265293
No? its red because blood absorbs light in the blue wavelengths of the VS as a result of the iron present in it, not because of "rust" persay.

if we had cobalt instead of iron i suspect we would have blue blood (or a very intense light red/pink)

>>1265303
Yeah I was kind of thinking, don't heme groups hold onto iron molecules in a way that keeps out water from interacting with it?

After all, in most proteins, not even a single water molecule can get very far inside due to hydrophobic interactions out the asshole.

>>1265303
Yes. The iron's redox potential is reduced because of the sequestration of it by heme. It "loosely" holds onto the oxygen. Looser than iron oxide would. This is because it's good enough to hold oxygen. If it were to tight, when hemoglobin gets to it's destination, the conformational change wouldn't want release the oxygen.

see the pic

>>1265323
http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=Oxygen_dissociation_curve
explains it better than I can at 6 am

> persay

>>1265253

Fuck OP I don't even take chem at Uni and I can answer that using high-school chemistry

Its because the Fe in our blood is in the +2 ionization state

It is a widely know fact that when atoms become ions they can undergo changes in their color, and when Fe goes into the +2 state it changes from the usual metallic color to red

It is from this that our blood gets its color, also "rust" is a general term for oxidation, in which an atom will lose electrons (when iot gains electrons it is called reduction), because the iron is in a +2 state it has undergone oxidation and so has 'technically' rusted, although its not ionically bonded to oxygen but to the nitrogen that connects the rest of the Hemoglobin molecule

Pic related, it the Hemoglobin molecule

>>1265365

It shows that you take neither chem nor biology in school because you're wrong.

>>1265365
The nitrogen is sequestering the iron, as opposed to transferring electrons. It's like a covalent bond to it. This weakens the iron's redox potential and make's it more suitable for holding and releasing oxygen unto the enzyme's whim... you didn't read the thread though.
see >>1265332

Curiously, anyone know if the enzyme pushes on oxygen's pi orbitals when it changes conformation?

>>1265379

yea sorry, that post wast there when I was typing up mine

but as I said I haven't done chem in a while (or at least implied it) and used what I remembered from high school and just applied it to try and explain it

>>1265365

It goes from 2+ to 3+ as hemoglobin is broken down, I believe.

Rust, Fe2O3, vs hemoglobin, C3032H48160872N780S8Fe4.

It should be pretty fucking obvious that they aren't even close.

of course it rusts, why do you think it's red? duh

>>1265436
red blood cells

>>1265293
Rust isn't red, that's for starters.

Also, ITT: Uneducated idiots.

If your definition of rust is rephrased as "does iron get further oxidized in the blood?" Then yes, it does.

Because when we take vitamins, the A-Zinc in centrum galvanizes the blood, keeping it safe from rust. It also gives blood a -1 charge.

Idiocy met with idiocy.

>24 posts and 3 image replies omitted.
Way too many posts to answer a stupid question.
/sci/ I am dissapoint.