Scientists have revealed the secret of the appearance of fingerprints
Everyone knows that every person's fingerprints are absolutely unique. It's hard to imagine, but there are no two people in the world who have the same lines on the skin of their palms. Until recently, the origin of fingerprints remained a mystery to science. But more recently, an international team of researchers has finally received an answer to this question.
For more than a century, fingerprint examination has been helping to solve crimes. Later, biometrics appeared, capable of accurately identifying a person's identity by his fingerprints to provide access. It's amazing that we have been using all this successfully for a long time, but we didn't know how the unique drawings appeared.
Once the answer to the question was sought in genetics. But soon this path was recognized as false. The fact is that even identical twins have completely different fingerprints. Strange as it may seem, but the secret was helped to reveal ... mice. A team of scientists tracked the development of mouse embryo footprints, and this helped make the discovery.
The researchers learned that the formation of fingerprints occurs in accordance with the "reaction-diffusion system". It was discovered in the 50s of the last century by the English mathematician Alan Turing. He suggested that some molecules promote cell growth, while others hinder it. As a result, during the development of the organism, alternating areas appear, forming a relief or pattern.
This principle applies not only in the case of fingerprints. This is how zebra stripes, giraffe spots and a unique nose print of dogs and cats appear. Tracking the development of fingerprints in mice and in human cell cultures, biologists noticed that the cells behave in strict accordance with the law of reaction-diffusion. Therefore, the scallops on the skin wriggle like waves and interact with each other.
The process originates at three points: at the fingertips, at the top of the pad and in the area of the second phalanx of the finger. At the initial stage, it resembles the formation of a hair follicle. The difference is that the body uses deeper layers of the skin to form the basis for the hair. Biologists are sure that when a technology appears that allows us to read the pattern of hair growth, we will make sure that it is also unique and built on the same principle.