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Fingers wrinkle the same way every time they’re in the water too long

A question from a child inspired a new biomedical engineering paper. -

A couple of years ago, Binghamton University Associate Professor Guy German published research about why human skin wrinkles when you stay in the water too long. What German and his team at the Biological Soft Matter Mechanics Laboratory found is that blood vessels beneath the skin actually contract after prolonged immersion, and that’s where the wrinkles come from. As much fun as it was to figure out something a child asked, the research also could have real-world applications in forensics, such as fingerprinting at crime scenes and identifying bodies found after prolonged water exposure.

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