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CglO2

 CO2 Blood Colorant that Glows!
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I have always wondered if it would be possible to inject something into the blood stream that would glow in the dark. The pale blue of veins showing through my skin is dull and uninspiring.

If you could somehow inject an additive which makes the blood glow in the dark, and show through your skin, then all your veins would glow all over your body- looking very cool in a nightclub.

Further more the additive would be affected by oxygen/co2 levels in blood and vary it's colour accordingly. Thus as the blood exchanges it's oxygen the glowing colour would change from say luminous green to shocking pink and back again.

You could even make it so you could choose which two colours it glowed...

AJC

—AJCrowley, Apr 14 2003

[link]






       // You could even make it so you could choose which two colours it glowed... //   

       How could you do that?
—waugsqueke, Apr 14 2003
   

       So you want to be a glow stick?
—sufc, Apr 14 2003
   

       It never ceases to amaze me what people will inject into themselves just to impress other people. Isn't your skin white enough already to show up under UV?   

       Though I do have a feeling this might be useful in certain areas of medicine (I've had a fair number of photographs taken of me under UV for one medical reason or another).   

       P.S. Shouldn't that be AECrowley?
—DrCurry, Apr 14 2003
   

       Truly an evil, misconstrued idea.   

       Croissant (+)
—FloridaManatee, Apr 14 2003
   

       Eat beetroot.
—skinflaps, Apr 15 2003
   

       This seems very WIBNI to me.
—krelnik, Apr 15 2003
   

       I need to see some information on how (and if) this could be done, a detail the author seems to have left out. I am very doubtful it is possible.
—waugsqueke, Apr 15 2003
   

       Thirded. Is this like the drug they take in "Outland?" That stuff looked kinda glowy in the futuristic injector thingy, but the druggies didn't glow afterwards.
—snarfyguy, Apr 15 2003
   

       I don't know how it would be done. Just wandering around google shows how many different products react to co2 with colour change. Of course the relative toxicity of the various products woud have to be addressed before working on something you could inject into yourself.   

       Here are a few extracts:   

       Many theories have been proposed as to the origin of this colour range. Laboratory experiments have shown that a mixture of Methane Clathrates (A special mixture of Methane and Water Ice), frozen CO, CO2 and frozen Ammonia will change colour when exposed to Ionising radiation - changing from a bluish to reddish colour - caused by the removal of Hydrogen from the ices and the formation of Tholins - complex HydroCarbons. This process has been put forward as a possible reason for the reddening of KBOs, with impact resurfacing as the driving mechanism for the range of colours observed.   

       The gas sampling tube functions quite simply. Each tube is filled with small granules of a special chemical that has a very high ability to absorb the gas that is being measured. This chemical is called a sorbent and in the CO2 sampling tubes the sorbent is hydrazine hydrate. You can see the sorbent by looking at the tube through a microscope. When the sorbent absorbs CO2, it reacts chemically with it. The product of this reaction has a blue color.   

       Among these things, the CO2 will react with the water to form a weak carbonic acid. This acid will cause the bromthymol blue to turn green or even yellow due to its acidic nature.   

       Bromocresol purple, bromthymol blue, and phenol red are acid base indicators. They change colors when added to an acid or a base. Bromocresol purple changes from purple to yellow when added to an acid. Phenol red changes from red to yellow in the presence of an acid, and bromthymol blue also changes to yellow in the presence of an acid. The indicators change back to their original colors when the acid is neutralized.
—AJCrowley, Apr 16 2003
   

       If you want your veins to glow, try drawing over them with a fluorescent marker (not a hi-liter, although some may work - a real fluorescent marker). Either leave it as it is, or take a shower and wash it all off with water; the fluorescent dye ought to stay for a few hours/days. You won't see anything until you walk into a nightclub or other UV-lit place.   

       Try drawing a whole skeletal system, then stripping on the dance floor. Pretty cool, I imagine.
—Macwarrior, Jan 11 2005
   

       The luciferin-luciferase reaction would respond to blood oxygen (not CO2). Saw a great demo at the Exploratorium where only the surface layer of liquid in a beaker was glowing, but when stirred (increasing oxygen) the whole thing flashed. Not sure if you could get enough of a glow to be visible externally without adverse health effects, though.
—Ford, Jan 23 2008
   
      
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