A new study credits the author of the Harry Potter books for inspiring a biomedical innovation:
“Paper-Based Blood Typing Device That Reports Patient’s Blood Type ‘in Writing’“, Miaosi Li, Junfei Tian, Mohammad Al-Tamimi, Wei Shen, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, epub April 18, 2012. The authors, at Monash University, explain:
“A low-cost bioactive paper device is designed to perform ABO and RhD blood typing tests, and the paper reports the results in writing. This idea was inspired by the vision of the British author, J.K. Rowling, through her novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in which a piece of paper could be interrogated for information and unambiguous answers were received from the paper in writing.”
Here, below, is some detail from this atypical typing paper about paper (and blood):
BONUS: The book The Science of Harry Potter