Fingerprints have long been known to be completely unique. They also don’t change their pattern over your lifetime, making them an extremely useful biometric for identification. Their ...

but why do we have fingerprints in the first place? Turns out, those unique whorls and loops are a mystery all on their own.

When exposed to X-ray film, the separated fragments generated a unique fingerprint, which Woese interpreted based on the position of the spots. “Literally every single day he sat in front of those ...

Coleman Lowndes is a lead producer who has covered history, culture, and photography since joining the Vox video team in 2017. Fingerprints have long been known to be unique. They also don’t ...