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Osmosis: Why Should Our Fingers Prune?

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Have you ever soaked in the tub or swimming pool for an extended amount of time and either your fingers or toes, maybe both, began to feel smooth-like and wrinkly? For a long time, people assumed that the reason our fingers prune was for no reason at all. Moreover, scientists started to investigate and experiment on how and why our fingers prune when immersed in water. There has been much laboratory tests that showed that wrinkly fingers improve our grip. Likewise, an analogy scientist used to help get a better understanding that wrinkly fingers improve our grip was compared to the rain trends in car tires to help channel away the water. The biology goes beyond how our skin works and gives us answers on why our fingers prune after exposed …show more content…

Scientists have long thought that the cause on why our fingers prune was caused by osmosis. Osmosis is the swelling of the outer layer of the skin as water is soaked into cells (Perkins, 2013). Scientists thought osmosis was the answer, because after having your fingers in water for a long period of time, much of the sebum is rubbed off, and our outer layer of skin starts to absorb water, which is osmosis. While scientists had an impression that osmosis was the answer to why our fingers prune, this is when experiments and observations became an important part to why our fingers prune. An observation that took us deeper into research was that wrinkles are assembled by nerves that automatically trigger pressure of blood vessels beneath the skin, which results in reducing the amount of tissues that are there. Moreover, scientist began to think finger wrinkling has a neurological basis. Lewis and Pickering found that skin in the median nerve distribution failed to wrinkle in median nerve palsy. Both men investigated an experiment that composed of the role of the autonomic nervous system and suggested that it may be used as a test of autonomic function. Additionally, in 2011, Mark …show more content…

The epidermis is the outermost layer, which keeps water from evaporating off the body. It also protects the inner layers from getting damaged, and locks in moisture. The most important layer for this topic is the stratum corneum, which is the outer layer of our skin. We can also see and feel this part of our skin. The stratum corneum is the layer with the dead keratin cells. When individuals are in the pool or tub for a long period of time, the dead keratin cells absorb water. The absorption of the dead keratin cells causes the surface area of the skin to swell. However, the outer layer is attached tightly to the living cell. To reimburse for the increase surface area, this is how our skin wrinkles. Some individuals have wondered why this happens only to our hands and feet and not the rest of our body. It happens because hands and feet have the thickest layer of dead keratin cells according to the Library of Congress (Nall, 1999). Since there is an increase in the thickness, the skin on our fingers and toes can absorb more water, which happens to produce the effect. However, soaked skin without protective oils that coat our skin are more open to damages and cuts. Basically, our hands and feet are subject to a lot of wear and tear, meaning we use our hands and feet the most. Just think about it, if the palm of our hands and feet had skin as thin as the skin on

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