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On This Day In Science - June 14
Sunday June 14, 2009
Karl Landsteiner/Nobel Prize Foundation
June 14th is Karl Landsteiner's birthday. Landsteiner was an Austrian physician who developed the modern blood type classification system. He identified the agglutins on the surface of red blood cells and separated them by type. There are four basic blood types: A, B, AB, and O. Type A blood has an Anti-B antibody and Type A antigens. Type B blood has Anti-A antibodies and Type B antigens. Type AB blood has no antibodies and both Type A and B antigens. Type O blood contains both Anti-A and Anti-B antibodies and no antigens.

Landsteiner later refined the system with Alexander S. Wiener by introducing the Rh factor to each blood type. Rh factors come in two flavors, Positive or Negative. Positive means the Rh antigens are present in the blood and Negative means they are not present.

Blood typing greatly increases the chances of success in transfusions and organ transplantation. Medical practitioners can now identify if a person can donate blood or receive blood based on their blood types and Rh factors. This important work earned Landsteiner the 1930 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.