14 DAY TRIAL // Brainiacs with Sweden's Linköping University claim to have finally solved a decades-old mystery. Thus, they say that, having carried out a series of tests, they figured out why Bram Stoker's Count Dracula found it impossible to resist the scent of blood.
Admittedly, the obvious explanation for Dracula's thirst for blood is that the Count was one seriously deranged individual. Still, it appears that there is more to Count Dracula's blood lust than people think.
In a nutshell, the Linkoping University specialists argue that just one compound that is naturally occurring in blood is what made blood irresistible to Bram Stoker's vampire. This compound goes by the name of trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal.
In a series of experiments, the researchers impregnated several lumps of wood with this compound and then placed them the enclosures of several zoo animals. Because of the compound, the lumps of wood attracted the attention of wild dogs, bush dogs and tigers.
To confirm their find, the scientists also introduced these animals to sticks impregnated with horse blood. The animals reacted to these sticks just as they had to the lumps of wood. Thus, behaviors such as sniffing, biting, pawing and licking were documented.
“For predators, food scents are particularly attractive, and much of this has to do with blood,” study lead scientist Professor Matthias Laska said in a statement, as cited by Daily Mail.
It is understood that, before zooming in on trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal as the one compound that neither Count Dracula nor other predators could ever resist, the researchers identified some 30 different candidates that they tested to see which sparked the animals' interest and which didn't.
