Re: Can anyone think of a chemical process?
Richard was not positing the presence of haemoglobin but some sort of iron based process equivalent to it. If the iron were chemically chelated in a similar way to haem molecules* caging iron that might explain it.
*Haemoglobin is not the only one. Muscles are red because they are packed with myoglobin, which actually has a higher affinity for O2 than haemoglobin. Has to be to rip the O2 from it.
I'll take my Physiologist/muscle biologist hat off now.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
