thefurryone Wounds I get cut up more often that I care to admit, but one thing about it keeps me curious. After a small cut stops bleeding, for a little while some strange, clear liquid seeps out. What is that stuff? Akagi Ritsuko Blood plasma. Not to be confused with the fourth state of matter, it is the liquid component of your blood other than your red and white blood cells and platelets. Mostly water, it also contains some amounts of proteins, minerals, and sugars. As a cut clots, platelets bind the wound and form a webbing too tight for white and red blood cells to escape, but some blood plasma can leak through until the clot has completely formed. If the cut is small, you may never see it clot. However, if the cut is large, or the wound caused by abrasion, you see the clot form as a "scab" which is really just a mass of platelets that have dried, trapping blood cells in their mesh with them. Plasma isn't strange...it is responsible for a significant fraction of your body's mass and much of the 5 liters or so of blood in you. It has also been found to be essential and saved many lives because it does not spoil as easily as whole blood, so it can be used to temporarily replace lost blood and maintain a patient's blood pressure, which in many cases is more critical than the loss of red and white blood cells.