fingerprints

What are fingerprints for? No, they are not just to tell one crook from another. The intricate whorls on each fingertip perform a very specific function according to this report from Discover Magazine. Fingerprints Are Tuned to Amplify Vibrations and Send Info to the Brain.

When a finger sweeps over a finely textured surface, such as a cotton sleeve or a wooden coffee table, the interaction sends a large range of vibrations into the skin. Specialized sensors called Pacinian fibers, the tips of nerve fibers, detect only a select few of the vibrations — those right around 250 hertz — before sending the signal to the brain, where the touch sensation is processed.

The intricate whorls on the tips of your fingers, not only engage with other textures as fingers slide over various textures, they amplify and filter the sensations to greatest efficiency and effect.

What other part of the human anatomy is arranged in similar ridges and whorls? Can you think of one? Can I be blunt? How about the human brain? Another one is hair. Some researchers have suggested that the direction of rotation of hair whorls on the human head is significant with regard to brain development. Who knows? The human body/mind is a complex mechanism that we still do not fully understand. And yet, we've constructed educational institutions that ignore much of what we do know.

For instance, that, "The hands are the cutting edge of the mind."-Jacob Bronowski
Make, fix, and create.