Rather than singe the prints off an unlucky student to compare hands with and without prints, Ennos rigged Warman’s fingers to a special device that slides a weighted sheet of Perspex across a finger and measures the resulting frictional force.

Ennos and Warman determined that the amount of friction generated went up as more of the fingerprint was touching the sheet, but not by as much as expected. This indicated that the skin was behaving like rubber, where friction is proportional to the contact area between the two surfaces.

So, if not for increasing grip, then why do we have fingerprints? Scientists think that fingerprints may improve tactile sensitivity, help water wick off fingers, and reduce shear stress.

Link – via GeekPress

A 62 year old man from Singapore was detained last year for an unusual condition: he had no fingerprints.  The man was taking the drug Xeloda for head and neck cancer.  Upon arriving at the airport, he was held for four hours from being unable to produce a fingerprint.

Capecitabine is a common cancer drug, routinely given to patients with head, neck and kidney cancers as well as lymphomas and leukemias. Doctors said very few patients temporarily lose their fingerprints while on Xeloda, but it does happen.

“Most patients will complain they’re having difficulty holding things or sensing things,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, who was not linked to the case. “I’ve never had a patient running into a problem with police authorities, but this is not an exaggeration. It could actually happen.”

Unlike most other countries, American immigration officials take two fingerprints from foreign visitors.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.