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Human Finger Prints
Given the number of people who have come and gone , and those that remain - can it be correct that all has / had a different finger print
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I suppose really I should expand on that, but I was aiming for brevity for a change.
It's generally thought that fingerprints are unique, although there is no proof of this as far as I can tell, and probably never will be. All the same, the large number of human individuals isn't evidence against the idea: 7 billion now, maybe 100-odd billion in total so far, is actually a tiny number in the grand scheme of uniqueness, and barely comes close to exhausting the potential number of distinct fingerprints.
On the other hand (no pun intended), the traces left behind by fingerprints aren't necessarily unique, can be subject to interpretation, aren't perfect representations of the fingertip, etc etc. Apparently some studies have shown that experts on fingerprints can disagree with each other about whether this fingerprint is a match to that one, and even disagree with themselves when shown the same fingerprint twice. So there is some subtlety in this, as always.
See also http://
It's generally thought that fingerprints are unique, although there is no proof of this as far as I can tell, and probably never will be. All the same, the large number of human individuals isn't evidence against the idea: 7 billion now, maybe 100-odd billion in total so far, is actually a tiny number in the grand scheme of uniqueness, and barely comes close to exhausting the potential number of distinct fingerprints.
On the other hand (no pun intended), the traces left behind by fingerprints aren't necessarily unique, can be subject to interpretation, aren't perfect representations of the fingertip, etc etc. Apparently some studies have shown that experts on fingerprints can disagree with each other about whether this fingerprint is a match to that one, and even disagree with themselves when shown the same fingerprint twice. So there is some subtlety in this, as always.
See also http://
Even if you could find two people who started life with ( some ) matching fingerprints, scratches/scrapes/scars and wrinkles would soon leave different permanent marks on top of the original whorls and swirls. By the time people were old enough to commit a crime, the fingerprints would be seen to be clearly different from one another.
"what intrigues me is how the DNA specifies identical ( erm random ) patterns"
I believe the answer to that is (thought to be) that it doesn't, and that the patterns on fingerprints are, at least partly, a response to conditions in the womb. This would at least explain why identical twins with identical DNA don't share fingerprints; and also provides a reason for the seemingly infinite variation. The conditions in which fingerprints form are almost certainly never going to be exactly the same.
I believe the answer to that is (thought to be) that it doesn't, and that the patterns on fingerprints are, at least partly, a response to conditions in the womb. This would at least explain why identical twins with identical DNA don't share fingerprints; and also provides a reason for the seemingly infinite variation. The conditions in which fingerprints form are almost certainly never going to be exactly the same.
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