Harry Potter Inspires Paper That Spells Out Blood Type

Posted on May 2, 2012

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels are the inspiration for a new type of paper that spells out a person's blood type. BBC News reports that researchers from Monash University developed special paper that spells out a person's blood type when a few drops of blood are placed on the paper.

The idea behind the paper is to make it easy for blood type to be rapidly determined, without the need for a complicated blood test.

The special paper contains imprinted areas representing the different blood types that are filled with antibodies. When drops of blood are added to the paper, the antibodies react with the antigens in the blood and the red blood cells clump together to make the blood type letter visible. Chemical & Engineering News has details about how exactly the blood test paper works here.

Professor Wei Shen at Monash University was inspired by Tom Riddle's Diary in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to come up with the special paper.

The study can be found here in the journal Angewandte Chemie.