A
sample is placed at one end of a porous membrane and, as it seeps along to the
other, encounters a line of antibodies designed to recognise it. When the
sample is urine and the antigen is a hormone found in expectant women, you have
a pregnancy test. When the sample is mucus from a swab and the antigen is the
spike protein, it is a covid-19 test—a cheap, convenient one which can provide
results with in
half an hour.