10 January 2013

Wrinkled fingers test: another candidate for Ig Nobel Prize?

The pursuit of happiness in the form of a doctoral degree sometimes brings amazing results. This is another case of such pursuit:

UK researchers from Newcastle University have confirmed wet objects are easier to handle with wrinkled fingers than with dry, smooth ones. They suggest our ancestors may have evolved the creases as they foraged for food in wet vegetation or in streams.
Read the whole, it is highly educational. Methinks that to complete this worthy research, the scientists involved in it should add another experiment: check whether a finger that has been... er... sat upon for different periods of time facilitates handling of wet objects too. Wet bananas, of course, come to mind as a first example of a smooth object to use...

8 comments:

Shaun Downey said...

Now that is science you can use. Perhaps the researchers will be like Andre Geim and win a Nobel and an Ig Nobel!

Dick Stanley said...

Wrinkled skin evolved? Who's kidding who? Our bodies are 90 percent water and so our already "damp" fingers get waterlogged, i.e. wrinkled, in too much additional water. This requires a PhD?

KatieNorcross said...

I do believe the skin of chimps also wrinkles. Why is that?

Dick Stanley said...

OT So how about it, Mr. Goon, are you busy digging out of the snow? Says here J-lem got 8 inches. Since y'all are on roughly the same latitude as Austin, Texas, we're bracing for our own snow storm.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I seriously doubt the first option is remotely viable.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

There are PhDs made from so many unlikely researches that it boggles the mind.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

They wash their hands too frequently?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Good, so it give Austin a chance to build a few snowmen.