Artificial Blood now considered a deadly idea

Wow, talk about a blow to our vision of the collective future. You remember the forecast that in the near future there would be no need for blood donations or if you needed blood for an operation, well they would just have some artificial blood already? Well it would seem that those days are farther off than we thought, and might be a lot closer to impossible than we thought. What initially
seemed so promising, being universally compatible and had a three-year shelf life (unrefrigerated), has instead proved to be possibly fatal, with a 30% increase in mortality. The performance has been so dismal that An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association has called for a halt to trials. That's pretty damning criticism.

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Scientists create 'plastic' blood

BBC news reports that Scientists have developed an artificial plastic blood which could act as a substitute in emergencies. Researchers at Sheffield University say that the artificial blood is light to carry, does not need to be kept cool and can be kept for longer. The new blood is made up of plastic molecules that have an iron atom at their core, like haemoglobin, that can carry oxygen through the body.