Your Fingerprints Reveal More Than You Think: Simona Francese (Transcript)

Simona Francese at TED Talks

Full transcript of Analytical chemist Simona Francese’s TED Talk: Your Fingerprints Reveal More Than You Think.

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Simona Francese – Professor of Forensic and Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry

Do you ever stop and think, during a romantic dinner, “I’ve just left my fingerprints all over my wine glass?”

Or, do you ever worry, when you visit a friend, about leaving a little piece of you behind on every surface that you touch?

And even this evening, have you paid any attention to sit without touching anything? Well, you’re not alone.

Thankfully, criminals underestimate the power of fingerprints, too. And I’m not just talking about the twisted parting of lines that make our fingerprint unique. I’m talking about an entire world of information hiding in a small, often invisible thing.

In fact, fingerprints are made up of molecules that belong to three classes: sweat molecules that we all produce in very different amounts, molecules that we introduce into our body and then we sweat out, and molecules that we may contaminate our fingertips with when we come across substances like blood, paint, grease, but also invisible substances.