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Why Some People Don't Have Fingerprints
sciencehabit writes "A small number of people in the world don't have fingerprints. The condition is known as adermatoglyphia, and one scientist has dubbed it the 'immigration delay disease' because sufferers have such a hard time entering foreign countries. In addition to smooth fingertips, they also produce less hand sweat than the average person. Now researchers have identified the genetic mutation behind the condition (abstract)."
What countries need fingerprints to enter? I've traveled in Asia and pretty much every shithole in earth and have never needed to give my fingerprint.
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I'm sure that after a few years in this world, their finger tips are not blemish free. So long as they leave behind at least a trace of oil, I'd argue that these fingerprints, being much more unique, would actually make the person easier to identify.
"Researchers have identified the genetic mutation behind the condition."
Good. Can the rest of us have it now, please?
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It's more complicated than "someone has fingerprints or they don't." The testing method matters, too. The print some people leave with the traditional ink-and-paper is substantially different from the print they leave with direct-light fingerprint scanners, which is substantially different from the print they leave with 3D sidelight fingerprint scanners. And all of these, of course, vary in comparison to latent prints, which vary depending on a host of factors.
Since I work as a tile layer all my fingerprints gets scrubbed away when handling tiles the whole day.
I was just recently to the police office to apply for a new passport, and we had a really hard time to get visible prints on their scanner... in the end the clerk just gave up and said "ok, this is probably good enough" and accepted the scan :-)
Maybe their parents sold their fingerprints to support their MMO habits.
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One of the causes of ppl losing their fingerprints is cancer treatment. I am facing a bone marrow transplant/stem-cell transplant and one of the possible side effects is losing my fingerprints. I am not sure if this is directly from the transplant, or something from the strong chemotherapy I will endure before/during the transplant procedure. Along with my blood DNA being different from the cheek swab test, I will be a walking "CSI episode waiting to happen". Maybe I will just get some stick on fingerprints like in "Gone in 60 seconds". Elvis Lives!
technoid_
Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do - Lew of GO magazine
I came across this in a novel by L. Neil Smith. In the book, he suggests, through the mouth of one of his characters, that there is no proof (and no way to prove) that everyone's fingerprints are different. At the time I attributed this to his extreme libertarianism. However, in the time since then I have seen numerous reports contending that no one has ever conducted a study to prove that fingerprints are unique to an individual and no references to such a study. Additionally, it appears that the acceptance of fingerprints as a means of identification came about by appeal to authority, rather than from any actual evidence as to the validity of such identification.
It seems likely to me that each person's fingerprints (those that have them) are unique. However, considering the evidence I have seen regarding how questionable the identification of individuals from fingerprints lifted at the scene (whatever scene that happens to be) by fingerprint experts has proven to be, on the occassions it has tested in a scientific manner, dubious at best.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Of course, fingerprints have been used for over a century, and DNA has been used for a few decades, and I'm not aware of anyone who has credibly argued that they have identified the "wrong" person.
Well played, sir.
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I had thought that this might be the key to becoming a successful burglar, but by the time I was old enough to actually become a burglar, my fingerprints no longer disappeared.
I would depress the value of testimony given by anyone who claimed some physical trait was "100%". But that said, all things are a matter of odds.
Assuming your fingerprints do exactly match those of someone else (and not just at 12 points, but everywhere), what are the odds that you live at the same time in history and at the same place as that person, and that you would also be in the area with no credible alibi at the same time the other person was committing a crime? The result need not be 100% - just "beyond reasonable doubt" - so even though I wouldn't believe the 100% argument, I could still conceivably convict someone based on such evidence.
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It's somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible to "prove" anything that isn't pure mathematics. You can estimate probabilities to within statistically significant bounds (it's 99.999% possible that you are the father of that child, etc.) Proof, as an abstraction, is much more difficult. To prove that DNA is unique, you would need to sequence every human who ever lived, is currently living, or will ever live. Disproof, by contrast, is much easier. You could disprove that DNA is unique with only 2 people (though it's very unlikely).
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You also need to provide skin samples, hair samples, retina scans, platelet values and stool samples. Plus 20 minutes of you walking like a duck.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Omg, I just lost an hour of my life. That site is pure awesome :)
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I will give you that, but I do think that people give way too much credence to the fingerprint evidence that is presented in court.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
From the RSS feed headline, I thought this was an article about a James Bond-like spying ring or something. Imagine my disappointment.
Even worse than the lack of evidence of the underlying uniqueness of the fingerprints themselves, I have heard that there are very few studies determining the reliability of fingerprint analysis - even if they are unique, if the technician makes errors you can get false positives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint#Validity_of_fingerprinting_for_identification
because it's hard to figure out if this is a favorable mutation or an unfavorable one. TFA said that the condition might have something to do with making it easier for skin cells to fold over each other during fetal development. What might be the consequences of hindering this?
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