A gift from nature to forensic scientists: It’s difficult to talk your way out of leaving fingerprints.
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There are no two people in the world with the same fingerprints. Researchers have now compiled how this happens – and explained why the 13th week of pregnancy is so crucial.
fginger prints are the most individual trait humans possess. There is no one who has had the same fingerprint in the past, nor will there be in the future. Even identical twins do not have identical patterns, despite having the same genome and undergoing embryonic development in the same uterus and therefore in the same environment.
Scientists have therefore long been interested in the question of how the characteristic lines on the inguinal skin of the fingertips develop and why no two fingerprints are exactly the same, not even on one’s own hand. The explanations so far range from spontaneous folds to simple mechanical deformations, predetermined pattern paths and the idea that the papillary ridges – as the lines are called in technical jargon – possibly follow the individual network of the deeper blood vessels.
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