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An Epiphany About Vulcan Physiology

Henoch said:
Instead of thinking more arteries and veins to make up the efficiency issue with copper versus iron, maybe the blood cells themselves are more complex with lastly higher surface area or reaction sites. A sphere shaped blood cell like our human cells versus a waded-up sheet shaped cell with a huge surface area. The amount of copper concentration in each cell could have 10-20 times more than an iron blood cell to make up for the 25% efficiency plus a thinner oxygen content in the Vulcan air.
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That's certainly another interesting biological theory about a mammalian species with copper-based blood. It's food for thought.
 
Discofan said:
I always wonder why the Vulcans don't have greenish skin. Because our skin is only pinkish because of the red blood that is seen by transparency through our very white skin. So the color of Vulcan skin is rather hard to explain.
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That might describe people that come from a northern climate, are naturally extremely pale, and never see the sun. Vulcans don't come from that kind of a climate.

Anyways, Vulcans, including Spock in TOS, do have a green tint to their skin. It's subtle, and more apparent in certain episodes, but it's there in all the cases I can think of. Even Tuvok is given a green tint at times. It's more apparent when they are angry. Their faces flush green.
 
Prax said:
That might describe people that come from a northern climate, are naturally extremely pale, and never see the sun. Vulcans don't come from that kind of a climate.

Anyways, Vulcans, including Spock in TOS, do have a green tint to their skin. It's subtle, and more apparent in certain episodes, but it's there in all the cases I can think of. Even Tuvok is given a green tint at times. It's more apparent when they are angry. Their faces flush green.
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Well, since they are supposed to be unemotional, it doesn't happen very often.
 
FormerLurker said:
That was the weird thing. In one episode, McCoy describes the Vulcan heart as being located roughly where the human liver is, yet in another episode, he points to his lower left back, saying the Vulcan heart is "Right about here." For years I wondered which one was the mistake.
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I remember that, but I've seen Vulcan anatomy diagrams on Strek Trek "Wiki" sites showing that the heart is where a human liver would be and the two organs are tightly packed together in that section of the torso.
 
Spock looked particularly greenish in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." He must have been flush with fever or something.

Kor
 
Defiler-Of-Redshirts said:
I remember that, but I've seen Vulcan anatomy diagrams on Strek Trek "Wiki" sites showing that the heart is where a human liver would be and the two organs are tightly packed together in that section of the torso.
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You know there must be a reason why an organ is situated at a precise position in the human body and not somewhere else. If you change arbitrarily the position of these organs, you have a good chance of obtaining an individual that will have at some point a hard time to survive. Like if our heart were positioned anywhere outside of the rib cage then a single punch in the abdomen would kill you.
 
Discofan said:
You know there must be a reason why an organ is situated at a precise position in the human body and not somewhere else. If you change arbitrarily the position of these organs, you have a good chance of obtaining an individual that will have at some point a hard time to survive. Like if our heart were positioned anywhere outside of the rib cage then a single punch in the abdomen would kill you.
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But the Vulcan heart is still protected by the ribcage bones, just not the sternum itself.
 
Defiler-Of-Redshirts said:
Star Trek does drop little hints that Vulcan body temps are cooler than us humans.
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Vulcans are used to external temperatures higher than normal on Earth:

In "The Deadly Years":

MCCOY: I'm doing what I can. (to Spock) You're perfectly healthy.
SPOCK: (sitting up) I must differ with you, Doctor. I'm having difficulty concentrating, which is most disturbing, my eye sight appears to be failing, and the normal temperature of the ship seems to me to be increasingly cold.
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SPOCK: I have a question for the doctor. (Kirk leaves) Doctor, the ship's temperature is increasingly uncomfortable for me. I've adjusted the environment in my quarters to one hundred twenty five degrees, which is at least tolerable. However, I
MCCOY: Well, I see I'm not going to be making any house calls on you.
SPOCK: I wondered if perhaps there was something which could lower my sensitivity to cold.
MCCOY: I'm not a magician, Spock, just an old country doctor.
SPOCK: Yes. As I always suspected. (leaves)
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So Vulcans should have a higher internal body temperatures than Earth Humans, unless there is a process which can make their internal body temperatures much lower than external temperatures. Such a process would probably involve part or all of their body surface radiating a lot of heat and feeling very hot to the Human touch.

Discofan said:
Shouldn't Spock's blood be a mix of copper and Iron hemoglobin?
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I think that a mixture of copper and Iron hemoglobin would probably not be viable, but perhaps those more expert in biochemistry can think of a way to make it work.

In "Journey to Babel":

MCCOY: Well, I'm glad somebody's asking me something around here. Well, the procedure they're discussing would require tremendous amounts of blood for the patient.
CHAPEL: Doctor?
MCCOY: Yes.
CHAPEL: I've checked the blood bank. There isn't enough Vulcan blood and plasma to even begin such an operation of this type.
KIRK: There are other Vulcans aboard.
SAREK: My blood type is T-negative. Somewhat rare, even for a Vulcan.
MCCOY: Yes, I'd say that's rare.
SPOCK: My blood is T-negative, Doctor.
CHAPEL: We've run a number of blood tests on Mister Spock. It isn't true Vulcan blood either. It has human blood elements in it.
SPOCK: It should be possible to filter out the human factors.
MCCOY: Even you couldn't give that much blood, Spock. It would kill you.
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So Spock has both Human and Vulcan "blood elements". But I don't know if that means Spock has Human red blood cells as well as Vulcan green blood cells. Spock's blood looks green, so Spock probably has a low proportion of red colored cells in his blood, low enough not to affect the color much.
 
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MAGolding said:
Vulcans are used to external temperatures higher than normal on Earth:

In "The Deadly Years":





So Vulcans should have a higher internal body temperatures than Earth Humans, unless there is a process which can make their internal body temperatures much lower than external temperatures. Such a process would probably involve part or all of their body surface radiating a lot of heat and feeling very hot to the Human touch.



I think that a mixture of copper and Iron hemoglobin would probably not be viable, but perhaps those more expert in biochemistry can think of a way to make it work.

In "Journey to Babel":



So Spock has both Human and Vulcan "blood elements". But I don't know if that means Spock has Human red blood cells as well as Vulcan green blood cells. Spock's blood looks green, so Spock probably has a low proportion of red colored cells in his blood, low enough not to affect the color much.
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Well, if you mix green and red you get brown.

That could be confusing. If Spock is wounded in his derriere you wouldn't know if he's bleeding or having diarrhea.:rommie:
 
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