30ml of pig’s blood is tipped energetically into a large glass containing only hydrogen peroxide. Immediately a white foam forms from the blood, looking like a mixture of vanilla ice-cream and strawberry sauce. To top it off, the “ice cream” is decorated with a wafer and a parasol.
How does it work?
Blood contains the enzyme catalase which is important for organisms. It can break down traces of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen before it can damage the body. In this experiment this is precisely what happens. The resulting oxygen gas that emerges pushes the large number of proteins out the blood as a foam (just like a meringue).
