When it comes to personal IDs, we have many. There’s your driver’s license, passport, online username, among other human-made forms of proving who you are. Then there are those that nature gave you that’s yours and yours alone. Like your DNA. And then there are your fingerprints. Other than leaving incriminating evidence behind if you’ve committed a crime and weren’t careful enough to wipe them away or wear gloves, what are fingerprints good for?
Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of EvolutionTalk.com, or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy.
Works Cited
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Budrikis, Zoe. “Getting a Grip on Fingerprints.” Nature Reviews Physics, vol. 3, no. 1, Springer Nature, Dec. 2020, p. 5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-00271-5.
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Columbo. “Framed by Fingerprints | Columbo.” YouTube, 16 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHhXZjUCB1c.
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Finger Prints by Francis Galton. galton.org/books/finger-prints/index.htm.
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Gaines, James M. “Finally, Scientists Uncover the Genetic Basis of Fingerprints.” The Scientist Magazine®, Feb. 2023, www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/finally-scientists-uncover-the-genetic-basis-of-fingerprints-70983.
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Greenberg, Alissa. “Koalas Have Fingerprints Almost Identical to Ours.” NOVA | PBS, 21 Sept. 2022, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/koala-fingerprints.
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Prillaman, McKenzie. “How Fingerprints Form Was a Mystery — Until Now.” Science News, 9 Feb. 2023, www.sciencenews.org/article/fingerprints-form-mystery#:~:text=Mice%20don’t%20have%20fingerprints,of%20the%20University%20of%20Edinburgh.
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Scheibert, Julien, et al. “The Role of Fingerprints in the Coding of Tactile Information Probed With a Biomimetic Sensor.” Science, vol. 323, no. 5920, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mar. 2009, pp. 1503–06. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1166467.
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Uenuma, Francine. “The First Criminal Trial That Used Fingerprints as Evidence.” Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Dec. 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-case-where-fingerprints-were-used-evidence-180970883.
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Yum, Seoung Mok, et al. “Fingerprint Ridges Allow Primates to Regulate Grip.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 117, no. 50, National Academy of Sciences, Nov. 2020, pp. 31665–73. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001055117.
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Zyga, Lisa. “Why Do We Have Fingerprints?” Phys.org, 4 Apr. 2009, phys.org/news/2009-04-fingerprints.html.
Music in this Episode
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Swingland by Frank Schroeter, Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6625-swingland, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Cinematic Suspense Series Episode 009 by Sascha Ende, Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/8224-cinematic-suspense-series-episode-009, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Ambient Bongos by Alexander Nakarada, Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4726-ambient-bongos, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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The Inspector by Frank Schroeter, Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9176-the-inspector, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Blue Sky U Liar 106 by Doudoo, Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/11436-blue-sky-u-liar-106, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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