Every day, millions of people have diagnostic laboratory tests or donate blood. Why is blood so important? Blood reaches every remote corner of our being, provides nutrients, carries oxygen, and removes impurities from tissues. Blood is not only a transport and defense system, but it also plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of all the other body systems and organs. All living beings (whether they are warm-blooded such as mammals and birds or cold-blooded such as insects, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrate animals) live thanks to blood, which is essential for life. We all take for granted its existence and importance, without knowing what it contains and its countless and amazing properties.

This book is a voyage we would like to take with our readers: it is organized into 4 parts going from the history of blood in religion and ancient populations via the basic science of blood, disorders that we all hear about every day, through to the use of blood and its components in treating several diseases.

The Authors have written this book because of their longstanding academic experience in the science related to blood and to disseminate their knowledge to the widest possible audience. This work has been designed to be as comprehensible as possible to diverse groups of individuals who are interested in science in general and in blood in particular. In addition, because several technical terms may not be familiar to the readers a detailed glossary is provided.