a yes-I'm-still-sick TIL: mucus becomes green because of dead white blood cells. but the details are way more interesting than that
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Replying to @FioraAeterna
the white blood cells engage in a practice called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_burst …, a fancy way of saying "they explode"
3 replies 6 retweets 16 likes -
Replying to @FioraAeterna
they use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NADPH_oxidase … to generate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superoxide . and of course, oxygen being hella toxic, it's like setting off a bomb
3 replies 5 retweets 16 likes -
Replying to @FioraAeterna
oxygen is so toxic basically every living organism synthesizes a variant of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superoxide_dismutase … to clean it up
1 reply 6 retweets 19 likes -
Replying to @FioraAeterna
oh yeah and the superoxide is used in a reaction that creates hypochlorite, which is literally the stuff they put in swimming pools
4 replies 3 retweets 16 likes
small correction: pee is the stuff they put in swimming pools
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