Though fingerprint are ready to hand for key perps , biologically , scientists still are n’t quite certain what our fingerprints are for . But as they test unlike conjecture , they ’re getting unaired to the result — and hear some pretty coolheaded stuff in the process .
Is it to improve our sense of touch?
In a2009 bailiwick , researchers from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris build two biomimetic tactile sensors , which mimic the human ability to touch and perceive texture . One had grooves that mimicked fingerprints ; the other was flat like smooth skin . When these faux fingerbreadth moved across rough - textured control surface , the fingerprinted sensors produced vibrations up to 100 time stronger than the smooth single . These vibrations , the scientists find , were dominate by a frequency in the optimum range of sensitiveness of the Pacinian corpuscle , receptors in our skin that find pressure change and vibrations . These researchers think that our fingerprints ' job might be to inflate sure tactile information so that it ’s more easy processed by the nervous arrangement . They also suggest that the whirl patterns of fingerprint see to it that some of the ridge are always brush sidelong across a surface , no matter which way the digit is moving , to good generate vibrations .
Is it to improve our grip?
human being , imitator , monkeys and koalas all have fingerprints . Some New World monkeys even have ridge pad on their tree diagram - grip tails . Fingerprints ’ design , and their presence in all these animals , has led people to think that they ’re an adjustment for improved grip while climbing Tree and manipulating objects , but there is n’t much observational evidence for that . Research by biomechanicists at the University of Manchester , whotestedthe idea in 2009 , hint that a dear grip is n’t fingerprints ’ long suit . Dr. Roland Ennos and his student Peter Warman screen the grip of Warman ’s fingers at different slant on strips of acrylic glass sheets similar to Plexiglas . While many solid object obey Amonton ’s law and friction between them is proportional to the military unit between them , the rubbing between finger and glass increase less than Ennos expected when more insistency was applied . The pair inked Warman ’s finger to mensurate the contact area between them and the sheet and come up that clash did increase when the contact area increased , but also noted that the groove between fingermark ridges reduce the fingers ' inter-group communication airfoil with the methamphetamine by about one third , compared with smooth tegument , and actually reduced rubbing and ability to grip .
What are some other possibilities?
Ennos and Warman fox out a few other plausible explanations for fingerprint at the end of their paper : that they allow our skin more to more easily comply with and distort to aim we ’re come to or holding , reduce shear stress and preventing bulla organization ; that they increase friction on raspy surfaces liken with flat skin because the ridge project into the depression on these surfaces and provide a higher contact area ; that they facilitate runoff of piddle like tire treads . Ennos says his lab is testing all of these hypotheses , but has n’t write any results yet .
