WEBVTT - Why Fingerprints? 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.800 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your mind. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.640 My name is Robert Lamb. My name is Julie Douglass. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.279 Your fingerprints, right, most of us do, pretty much all 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.119 of us do unless something has come along to a 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.479 change that matter. But I don't think I really have 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.640 to explain what these are. You have these fingers, you're 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.040 blows right at the end of each one, you find 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:37.200 these curious designs, little trenches and whirls forms, this little pattern, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.640 and uh, from a very early age, we all know 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.320 that these signify who we are. Right, put it in 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.199 an ink, put it on a page. There's your fingerprint. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.360 It's a part of like kindergarten art classes. You know, 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.000 you make a turkey with your hand. That turkey is 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.480 a is a blueprint of who were, not real blueprint, 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.840 but it is a signature of who you are. No 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.240 one's Thanksgiving handpay turkey is the same as another individual's 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.680 Thanksgiving hand paint turkey. They're unique and really they should 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.959 be what we should use, in my opinion, as signatures 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.880 on all official documents. You think, yeah, it's you know, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.959 just with the turkey design is in specific Yes, yeah, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.000 like Kofe anon Um, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, I don't 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.400 care who they make an official document. At the bottom 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.520 of it, they've put their hand down with paint and 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.480 then trace around it and then make a Thanksgiving turkey. Well, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.839 and of course you're bringing this up because it's thought 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:35.520 that the fingerprint is unique to this unique biometric that 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.800 we've got, nobody else has it. And uh, that's one 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:40.560 of the things we're gonna get in today, that the 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.800 fingerprint as an identification tool. And we were generally that's 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.720 where our minds go when you talk about fingerprints. You 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:47.920 think of C. S I and all this stuff, and 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.440 they know their prints left here, Prince left there, and 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.680 those prints that the police are supposedly going to collect 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.720 and solve a crime with. But we often overlook the 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:57.840 underlying question why do we have them? To begin with? 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.160 What are they right? And we're going to discuss at 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.760 as well fingerprints the why of fingerprints from various standpoints. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.200 That's the episode today. Well, here's the deal. Many mammals 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.320 have them, but humans are the only ones to have 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:17.280 really complex patterning. And there's a general flow to fingerprints, UM, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.680 especially to what we call the ridges that translate into 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.680 one of three major pattern types. So we're talking about 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.040 a whirl, a loop, or an arch. And it's possible 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.880 to have just one, two, or all three pattern types 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.080 among your ten fingers. And here's a little tidbit about 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.520 that six of the world's population has loops, five percent, 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.919 only five percent of the world world's population has arches, 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:49.359 and thirty five percent of the world's population has whorls. Yes, 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:50.920 and I can tell you that I've already detected a 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.680 couple of whorls on my fingertips. But why why do 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.240 we have these fingerprints? Well, one theory why why, Robert, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.720 why are we cursed with these things? Well when one 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.919 reason that is often brought up and theorized about, uh, 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:05.760 and certainly it makes it seems to make a lot 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.080 of sense on the surface of things, is that we 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.919 use them for grip. It's like, because you look at it, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.560 it's like it's like you got some ridges there, and 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.840 I think of like gloves that are made for gripping things, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:18.720 and they tend to have some sort of a ridgid 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.840 ridge ridge based surface there, weightlifting gloves, weight lifting gloves, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.680 things like that. So maybe we have them to lift them. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.960 Maybe it's so that if we're picking up a glass 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.120 of milk or swinging a battle axe, whatever you need 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.360 to grip the groove. Prints improve the friction rate between 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:38.920 finger and object. But not so, according to a team 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.720 of researchers at the University of Manchester, they looked into 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.080 this make on the whole idea is just a bunch 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.880 of hooey. There's a two thousand nine study Journal of 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.800 Experimental Biology, and the menu team measured the friction rate 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.720 between flesh and objects can discovered only a marginal increase. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.840 They also discovered that printed finger pads actually come into 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.040 contact with an acriolic class already three less than completely 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.080 smooth finger pads, and in some cases the prints actually 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:09.640 reduce our grip rather than improve it. Okay, so that 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.720 is out. We don't eat them for grip. Yeah, okay, 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.280 So there are a couple other theories um in play here, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.680 and maybe that they allow our skin to stretch and 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.599 to form more easily, protecting it from damage. Yeah. The 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.440 idea here. I like to think of men's slacks, like, 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:27.880 what are the least style of slacks a guy can wear? 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.840 Big balloon Khaki's right it's like a big balloon crotch 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.000 that anytime you sit down it looks like, um, some 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.120 sort of like automobile protection device has gone off in 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.120 your pants. Yes, it is. That's balloon balloon crotch in 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.680 khaki pants. And I used to have to wear khaki 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.480 pants to my job at a newspaper, and so that 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.080 I was always having to deal with that, and it's awful. 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.560 But I'm pretty if your pants are that baggy, you're 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.560 pretty much guaranteed not to rip them, right, It's kind 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.599 of like yoga pants or hammer pants. There's a lot 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.560 of room to move around, you're not gonna rip them. 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.680 But if you're wearing say some nice stylish skinny jeans, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.919 some like really narrow drain pipes, and you try and 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.159 do anything, Heaven forbid, you try and do the splits, 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.440 or even bend over and pick something up, you're gonna 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.800 tear something. Hopefully you'll tear the pants. But but I 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:15.359 like to think then of this theory is that the 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.240 fingerprints are rigid. Fingerprints are kind of the uh, the 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.760 balloon pants, the hammer pants of skin. Okay, so those 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.159 ridges are kind of like the hammer pants, and that 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.920 they could expand and deform onun will if they need. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.119 There's also this idea that fingerprints may allow water trap 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.760 between our finger pads and the surface to drain away 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:40.599 and improve surface contact in wet conditions. Kind of makes sense, right, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.960 Other researchers have suggested that the ridges could increase our 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.960 finger pads touch sensitivity. Yeah, that's a really cool one. Uh. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:49.760 And this is the the idea that when you're you're 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.920 feeling particularly fine features, such as a single human hair 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.680 on a desktop, your sense of touch depends on skin 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.200 vibrations that arise as your fingertip moves across the desk. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.680 So when two thousand nine, a team of French researchers 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.400 looked into this, and they found that a rigid fingertip 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.280 moving across the surface produces vibration frequencies that are detected 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.480 by special nerve endings called Bassinian corpuscles, and these nerve 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.440 endings then passed this information onto sensory neurons that signal 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.520 the brain. So the idea here is those without those ridges, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.520 if you burn them off with battery acids so that 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.760 you can commend more crimes or what have you, you 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.560 would not be able to feel as as as easily 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:29.960 you would not be able to feel those tiny fine 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.760 details and things, which is really cool. Yeah, so here's 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.040 this idea. Can you be born without them? Here's this question? 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:43.600 You can? You can? You really well do explain. This 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.760 was discovered when a twenty nine year old Swiss woman 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:48.680 of the U. S Border was made to wait for 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.880 hours as puzzled officers tried to make sense of her 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.720 missing prints, and as a result, this has been dubbed 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.560 the immigration delay disease. I kuld you not really. It's 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:02.880 very very rare and has only been documented in four 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.760 families across the world. So they had no prints. They 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.000 had no prints. Yeah, so you could argue they had 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.520 identical prints then since that the prints that they had 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.200 were non existent. Question. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.920 maybe a different question. But genetically it is able. It's 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.840 possible for you to be born without prints. Again, very rare, 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.560 and I think that the calling it a disease is 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.520 even kind of a bit specious because it's like, well, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.720 you know what, what was the problem other than not 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.640 having maybe you can't feel very fine surfaces. Well, see 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.960 that's that's the only thing they say. Typically, the pores 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.360 of sweat glands lie along the tiny ridges that make 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.000 up our fingerprints. So for people with this mutation, the 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:52.280 ridges don't even form to begin with interfering with sweat glands, okay, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.280 and as a result people actually they sweat less on 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.760 their hands, so the body makes up for it. Now 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.360 you can get rid of them, your fingerprints, if you've 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.480 ever wondered um that some people have gone to some 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.920 crazy links to do so, but repeat exposure to some 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.040 chemicals can can remove them or modify them as well 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.960 as callouses. So if you're doing a certain type of work, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.560 you could actually have your fingerprints pretty much smear to nothing, 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.640 or the traditional method in crime family just to let 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.280 a turtle chew them off. You put a little you 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.640 smear a little meat paste on each on each of 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.960 your fingerprints, preferably a baby box turtle or a pack 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:33.880 of them, and then you let them chew on the 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.160 fingertips until you're satisfied, and then you get to get 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:41.359 This is the Paliocci crime family method. Yeah, well, okay. 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:46.160 In the nineties, kidnapper Theodore Handsome Jack Clutus took a 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.240 knife to his fingerprints, and that was the first documented 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.360 case of finger mutilation. And then the notorious bank robber 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.720 John Dillinger dipped his fingers in acid. Obviously that's the 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.839 somehow that sound like a in wins at that one, 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.160 like with the slicing, but are actually pretty terrible, right, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.840 But somehow the burning of the prints off seems not 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.920 so crazy, but surely it hurts. Well. I guess the 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.280 thing is we can relate. Everyone has cut their fingers, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:15.800 or most of us, I feel like they've cut their 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.360 their fingers one there, like peeling potatoes or something, so 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.160 we have a frame of reference for that, whereas being 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.640 scalded by battery acid and maybe not so much. I 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.400 just feel like if you're going to cut the fingerprints 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.640 off of your hands, that you're already bringing more attention 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:32.920 to your fingers anyway. So we were like, hey, why 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.640 why why do you have cut fingertips? Oh? I don't know, 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.320 no reason. And then you know, of course in that 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.000 day and age are probably like, that's the dude with 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.439 the strange missing fingertips. Do you think something's up with him? Yeah? 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.880 I don't know. It just any kind of self inflicted flame, 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.079 whatever your purpose, it's just weird. I'm just saying it's 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:51.800 not subtle. I did just think it was a bad 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.360 way to go, all right, So how do finger prints 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.560 form in the first place. Well, it's it's it's interesting 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.120 because it's not something we are, it's not in our genes. 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.320 It's not necessarily genetic thing really going on here. This 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.800 is something that forms in the womb. And what happens is, uh, 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.200 the outer epidermist and the inner subcutaneous tissue sandwich the 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.000 dermal cell layer between them, like a slice of cheese 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.240 between two slabs of bread, and as the pressure builds, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.160 the slice of cheese again, that's the dermal cell layer 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:30.080 compresses in buckles, erupting into random surface patterns. I love that. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:31.920 And I wanted to give some more detail on that too, 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.959 because some of how that's done actually influences the pattern 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.800 that you get. Um, we have these friction ridge skin 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.599 covering the surface of our hands, and that's what comprises 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.560 the ridges and the furrows. So, as you say, in 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.480 those um, during those weeks I think it's ten through 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.439 fifteen weeks, the fetus develops smooth vallor pads. These are 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.360 raised pads, and the fingers, poems and feet because of 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.560 swelling mess and kimmeled tissue, which is a precursor for 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.679 blood usseles and connective tissues. And then around week ten, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.600 the volor pads stop growing, but the hand continues to grow, 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:07.720 and then as a result, over the next few weeks, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:09.840 the volor pad is absorbed back into the hand. This 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.400 is what you're talking about, um. During this stage, the 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.880 first signs of the ridges begin to appear, and the 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.000 spacing and arrangement of these early ridges is a random process, 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.360 but it's dictated by the overall geometry and the topography 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.400 of the volar pad. So if the ridges appear while 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.760 the volar pad is still uh quite pronounced, and the 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:34.080 individual will develop a world pattern. And then if the 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.840 primary ridges appear while the volar pad is less pronounced 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.720 than the person will get a loop pattern on their fingers. 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.360 And then if finally in the if the primary ridges 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.640 appear while the volor pad is nearly absorbed, then the 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.840 individual will develop an arch pattern. And I love how 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:52.959 they talk about it is topography because it really does 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.720 kind of remind me of the only the Earth's own 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.960 surface and the various elements going on to create causes 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.240 mountains to rise and valleys to deepen. Yeah, yeah, and 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:07.880 this is going on in the womb. It's so cool. 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:13.439 So could one Olsen twin frame the other for murder? No? No, 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:21.079 no fingerprints No, because even the Olsen twins, as identical 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.920 as they are, they do not have the same fingertip patterns. Now, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.200 they may have similar patterns because the patterns that you 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.840 do get are genetic, but they will have a unique 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.439 marker in theirs. So it's kind of like if one 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.640 twin were slapped in the face by the same person 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.480 in the exact same way, they still wouldn't get the 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.800 exact same bruise on their face, necessarily because it's something 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.520 that's being done to the twin rather than something that's 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:52.120 purely emerging from their genetics. That's right, Yes, all right, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.360 We're gonna take a quick break, and when we return, 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.080 we will get into this idea of fingerprints is identification. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.480 To what extent is this a fabulous the idea to 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:12.319 what extent is that deeply flawed? All right, we're back 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.880 before we start talking about how unique fingerprints are and 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.800 bringing that into question. You know, I didn't want to 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:24.400 mention that ridge characteristics may indicate genetic predisposition of certain diseases, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.240 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually performed 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.600 research in two thousand and five that investigated these rich 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.439 characteristics as a genetic roadmap for the predisposition of certain diseases. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.280 In particular, people with diabetes found UH. They found actually 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.040 that these people have a much higher ridge count than 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.640 those with normal glucose tolerance. So it's kind of interesting 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.199 that that they actually do tell us something just nonsense 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.120 that happens. It's not like a nonsense password that doesn't 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.040 mean anything in and of itself, but is unique well, 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.440 and I kind of think of palm ream reading in 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:04.520 this Sensemancy, if you want to get fancy well truromancy, 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.480 it is uh, and that you could be able to 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:12.240 tell something about yourself through these fingerprint patterns. So the 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.959 idea that a fingerprint is unique and could be used 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:16.839 as a biometric, They could be used as something on 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.760 our body that identifies who we are. The idea itself, 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.720 you find this an ancient Japanese and Chinese civilization. They 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.800 recognized pretty early on that this is something that's unique 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.120 and we can use this essentially to put our signature 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.120 on things. But for the most part, in the modern world, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.880 especially in the Western world. It goes back to Sir 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.280 Francis Galton nineteenth century. Polly Math is one of these 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:40.960 guys by poly math of corpse of meaning. He was 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:45.400 into everything. He was just a learned man who love 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.600 to experiment, love to read about things, research things, and 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.520 figure out how the world worked. And uh, you know 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.520 it wasn't necessarily a specialist in any particular field, but 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.760 just was ready to just go all in on whatever 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.720 he was studying. And he was also the cousin of 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.840 Charles Darwin. Incidentally ran in the family. Yeah, ran in 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.720 the family. I guess the brilliance and all. But he's 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.440 the one who really pushed this idea that fingerprints are 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.000 such a unique identifier and then they're a great biometric 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.040 and that the idea of two individuals possessing the same 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.840 fingerprint were so slim that it was virtually flawless. I 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:24.640 believe he said that the chances of two people and 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.000 this was this was his math. Uh, the chances of 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.800 two people possessing a matching fingerprint were one in sixty billion, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.240 which back then would have seemed pretty reasonable, right in 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.760 terms of the chances of someone else possessing the same fingertips, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:41.960 and so that was a good case to try to 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.880 use this as a biometric right, but what does that 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.440 mean today? Like, just just on on the math level, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.120 it's interesting. There's a guy. There's a fingerprinting expert, Professor 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.480 Edward im Winkle Reed, which is a great last name. 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.160 My own science editor Alison louder Milk, who also has 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.840 a great last name, she kept emailing me back responding 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:03.400 about this guy's name. She's like, oh my god, this 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.320 is the greatest name I've ever heard, because it's there's 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.720 a little it sounds like he should be abducted by 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.440 by little people. There's a little bit of rumple still say, 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.520 it sounds a bit of a children's story name. Yeah, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.920 but as much as we we love his last name, 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.520 uh in Winkle Read is a fingerprinting expert, and he 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.000 argues that since world population now exceeds six point four 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:29.040 billion and most of us possess ten digits, we have 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.400 more than sixty four billion prints out there to bump 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.040 the odds of having any two individuals share a single print. Well, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.320 she argues it's just one of the reasons why multiple 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.920 fingerprints are important, and that we really need to consider 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.760 reforming fingerprinting as a biometric. That's one of his big causes, 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:48.800 or has been over the last several years, is that 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.080 we really need to rethink how much we can trust 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.600 fingerprints as an identified her So, okay, then that problem 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.400 actually would become more pronounced as more people come online. Right, 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.840 so we've talked about adding the three point billion people 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.960 by the year, so that we will now be nine 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.080 point five billion people. Yeah, but even when you if 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.159 you disregard that as just pure number high jinks, you 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.480 still get down to the question why did we buy 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.399 Why did we buy into this idea that that that 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.919 fingerprints are are so perfect? And according to statisticians Stephen M. Stigler, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.679 uh twentieth century reliance on fingerprints had less to do 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.040 with science and reliability and more to do with courtroom 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.400 drama and a fortunate lack of pattern repetition in prints. 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.480 So the argument here is that, all right, you have 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.560 a trial going on that fingerprint. It looks really cool 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.199 up there on the screen. For the most part, if 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.720 all things created equal, it's pretty reliable. And I mean 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:44.480 it's as we'll discuss here, there there's a lot of 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.800 reliable things about the fingerprint. It's still pretty unique, but 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:55.320 it's not flawless. In fact, since evaluations of fingerprinting labs 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.119 by collaborative testing services UH, those evaluations have discovered fingerprinting 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.680 error rates ranging from three to So when you get 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:09.200 into regardless of how how much you can trust fingerprintings, 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.480 you get into the flawed potentially flawed nature of human 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.359 fingerprinting biometrics and how we record them and keep track 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.640 of them, interpret them, and then press charges with them, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.440 you can get into like upwards failure rate, chance that 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.800 you're gonna have flawed results. That gets pretty big, I mean, 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:26.520 and that's why if you look at some of the 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.400 rather lofty figures, I think it's like three and one. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.920 We're up to as of this recording, three one individuals 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.120 cleared by the Innocence Project, individuals who had been convicted 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.439 largely based on based on a number of things, but 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.119 fingerprinting is a part of that, and then they were 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.560 exonerated via DNA evidence. Well, you know, previous to it 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.080 seemed like the gold standard, and it's you know, historically 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.719 between nineteen nine five and now, there really hasn't been 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.760 that much time that has passed, so obviously a lot 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.400 more reform needs to happen, especially when you consider um 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.919 that you know this was this was the way that 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.960 they began to identify criminals in the nineteenth century and 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.600 that was really helpful technology then, right. And I wanted 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.000 to mention too that that this has its beginnings in 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.560 eighteen fifty eight when an Englishman named Sir William Herschel 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.440 was working at this the chief magistrate at the Hookley 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.520 District in Singapore, India, and in order to reduce fraud, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.280 he had the residents record their fingerprints when signing business documents. 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.280 So again that has a pretty big tradition back in 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.560 Japanese culture as well and before that. But as you said, 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.080 this is a This is such a dramatic way to 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.080 I d someone and to say this is the person 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.960 that you can see how it's been in use for 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:46.960 so long. But now, of course we are in a 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.760 different age where we have so many different biometrics to 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.280 work with. Yeah, and people like in Winkle Reed and 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.000 the Staggler, they're not they're not arguing that we should 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.399 just abandon fingerprints, but rather that we should become smarter 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.640 about how we used them and we should not depend 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.480 on him as a soul biometric. However, that again, fingerprints 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.159 are great and they can be very useful, and I 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.159 think it's really interesting to how useful fingerprints can be 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.600 not only immediately after death, but after a certain amount 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.680 of decay has occurred. I found this interesting BBC news 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.119 story that interviewed Alan Bale, who is the author of 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.679 the UK's standard police manual on dead hands, which is 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.080 some great expertise there. And this is also something that 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.600 you'll find you'll find in the US and other countries 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.320 forensics manuals. So when he goes to cocktail parties to see, 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.399 say I'm an expert on dead hands, I hope so 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.600 I hope he does, because these are great. This is 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.199 the kind of stuff I'm gonna have to share the 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.680 next cocktail pate party I go to. Because he talks 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.760 about how, quote, if a hand is found in the water, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.560 you will see that the epidermist starts to come away 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.639 from the dermist like a glove. This sounds gruesome, but 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.359 if a hand has been badly damaged, I cut the 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.040 epidermis off and put my own hand inside that glove. 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:56.920 And by glove he means the flesh off that hand. 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:00.600 And then try to fingerprint it like that. So even 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:02.480 though the outer layer of your head, of your the 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:04.639 flesh in your hand has come off like a glove, 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.919 like a loose glove, from the rotting remnants of the 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.560 rest of your hand, this guy and other friends it 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.320 professionals can then come along and just slip their own 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.360 hand into your flesh glove and start rolling some prints out. 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.080 They'll just buffalo bill of that. They'll just game's gum 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:30.280 that bet Yeah. All right, um, that's comforting. That's really comforting. Well, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.840 all right, let's talk a little bit about the future 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.720 of fingerprints, because I found this really interesting. Um. There's 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:41.320 a Huntsville, Alabama company called i Dare, and it has 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.520 developed a system that can scan and identify a fingerprint 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.440 from about twenty ft away, and coupled with other biometrics, 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.000 it could soon allow security systems to grant or deny 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.679 access from a distance without requiring users to stop and 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.720 scan a fingerprint or swipe an I d card. Now, 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.119 the aren't customer for this is the military, but it 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.439 has possibilities obviously in the marketplace and in fact as 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.320 being beta tested in a gym right now. But the 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.439