The hand consists of 27 bones including eight in the
wrist, five in the palm, and 14 in the fingers and thumb. The narrow wrist
bones form two rows of four bones that fit into a socket in the forearm bones.
The hand moves by a sophisticated and coordinated relationship between bone,
muscle, tendons, nerves, and the brain.
Bones have no power to move themselves; they are moved by
muscular exertion through tough cord-like fibers called tendons. One end of a
tendon comes from the end of a muscle. The other end attaches to a bone.
The astounding dexterity of human fingers is made
possible primarily by the coordinated actions of seven muscles that control the
index finger, five muscles unique to the thumb, and three other muscles that
move the little finger. Is this degree of complexity the result of random
mutation over millions of years, or was the hand created in its entirety by
God?
A fingerprint is an impression made by
the papillary ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs. Fingerprints afford
an infallible means of personal identification because the ridge arrangement on
every finger of every human being is unique and does not alter with growth or
age.
Fingerprints serve to reveal an individual’s true
identity despite personal denial, assumed names, or changes in personal appearance
resulting from age, disease, plastic surgery, or accident. The practice of
utilizing fingerprints as a means of identification is called dactyloscopy.
As you move your fingers across a surface, you trigger
vibrations that are picked up by nerves. Some of these nerves (called Pacinian
corpuscles) are embedded relatively deep (about two millimeters under your
skin). Our sense of touch is so refined that we can feel texture differences as
small as the width of a human hair (about 200 micrometers).
How much do fingerprints enhance your ability to detect
tactile differences? Scientists found that the vibrations from a patterned
fingertip were 100 times stronger than vibrations from a smooth fingertip. Below
you will find even more interesting facts about your fingertips that might not
have been aware of:
·
Apple’s iPhone Touch ID can tell a
difference between the fingerprint of a living and deceased person, so if you
are dead no one would be able to access your iPhone using your touch ID.
·
Chemotherapy patients may lose their
fingerprints.
·
Cops “mark” your driver’s side tail
light or trunk with their fingerprints when they pull you over, just in case
something goes bad for them.
·
Crime scene fingerprint dust causes
several health problems even cancer.
·
Identical twins are born from the same egg and sperm. They share 100% of their
DNA. However, their fingerprints will always be unique.
·
If
a dead body goes undiscovered long enough for skin-slip to start and there’s no
one to identify the body, forensics can cut the skin around your wrist, slip
the skin off, and wear it like a glove in order to get the fingerprints.
·
Naegeli-Franceschetti-Jadassohn Syndrome (NFJS) comes from a genetic problem with a
layer of the body formed early in development. As well as the striking absence
of fingerprints, suffers also have a decreased ability to sweat and a loss of
teeth.
·
Our fingerprints are developed while
we’re still in the womb and are unique based on our movement, location in the
womb and composition of our mother’s amniotic fluid. The ridges on your fingers which
create ‘fingerprints’ are formed in weeks 10 – 15 of the fetus’ time in the
womb.
·
Palm
and sole prints can also be used to identity people if fingerprints are
unclear.
·
The scientific name for fingerprints is
Dermatoglyph. The
name for the study of fingerprints is Dermatoglyphics.
These words come from two Ancient Greek words: Dermato: from derma (skin) and Glyph/Glyphics: from
gluphikós (sculpted).
·
The
three types below are the starting point for all fingerprint comparisons: Loops point towards the thumb or
the little finger, and are the most common fingerprint type at 60% occurrence. Whorls are circular or spiral
patterns that come in several different forms, and make up about 35% of
fingerprints. Arches are rare and wave-like in shape, and account for 5%
of the population’s fingerprints.
·
The world’s oldest fingerprint was
discovered in Kuwait on a piece of broken clay pot dating from the Stone Age.
The print is 7,300 years old.
“Every individual's listening is as unique as his or her
fingerprints because we all listen through filters that develop from our
personal mix of culture, language, values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and
intentions. That is why one person's musical taste is another person's hideous
noise.” (Julian Treasure)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“30 Interesting Facts about Fingerprints” by Jazz
·
“Fingerprint” by J. Edgar Hoover
·
“Proof of God in the Palm of Your Hand!”
By Craig W. Beidler
·
“Ten Facts about Fingerprints” by Tensor Pic
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