Anna-Christina Ellertson Sam Peters 2-10-12 Science project

Do genetics affect fingerprint?

By: Samantha Peters and Anna-Christina Ellertson Introduction
A fingerprint is a pattern on the bottom of a finger or thumb, often used for identifying people, because every fingerprint is different and unique. Not even twins share the same fingerprint. There are also hand prints and footprints; however they are not as significant as the fingerprint. For our science experiment, we chose the topic of fingerprints and if there is a genetic similarity within a familys fingerprints. This sounded like a very interesting topic because we are fascinated by crime scene investigation. We also think that this topic will interest other students as much as it does us. We wonder, Do genetics affect fingerprints? Although everybody has a different fingerprint, a fathers and his sons fingerprints may be similar. We want to know if fingerprints are inherited by genetics or just random. There are 5 main types of fingerprints; arch, tented arch, whorl, radial loop, and ulnar loop. However, there are also several minor types of fingerprints which include the exceptional arch, central pocket, twinned loop, lateral pocket, and accidental. hypothesis We are aware that every person has a different fingerprint, and none are alike, but we think that peoples genetics will affect the type of fingerprints that they have. We think this because many things are inherited from your parents (hair color, eyes,nose,etc.) and fingerprint type could be one of those things.

Materials

black nontoxic ink pad white paper/binder paper moist towel magnifying glass

Methods 1. Take a familys Fingerprints

a. clean persons left thumb with moist towel b. press lightly in ink pad c. gently, but consistently press on white paper d. clean persons thumb with moist towel e. continue for the rest of family

2. Examine fingerprints
a. one at a time, use a magnifying glass to examine and discover type. Conclusion After examining the fingerprints, the results taught us that in most cases, a familys fingerprints are similar. However, this is not the case in all of them; therefore, we do not think that genes affect offsprings fingerprints. Based on our results, we have a theory that fingerprints may be transferred through gender. Our results show that it is common that a girl/boy has the same fingerprint as the parent of the same gender. For example, we took the fingerprints of family D and one of the daughters fingerprints was very similar to her mothers. In addition, her fingerprint was totally different than her fathers. Our science project has taught us that even though a family may have similar fingerprints, in some cases, every family member has a different fingerprint; therefore genes do not affect fingerprints. Discussion From doing our science project, we learned that genetics do not affect fingerprints in every case. Although, we think that gender may affect them. Our hypothesis was incorrect, but we did have one correct theory about gender affecting them. Our hypothesis was that genes did, in fact affect fingerprints, but in the fingerprints that we examined, that was not the case. We did not have to adjust any methods once we started. The best part about doing our science project was taking and examining the fingerprints. That was fun! It was very interesting to have people stamp their fingers and finding out what type they were! I was also excited to see what my family was! If I was going to do this project again, I would get all the fingers on a hand, because every finger has a different print. That probably would have been more affective. Our project relates to the real world because in crime scene investigation, they need to take peoples fingerprints and if the genetics did affect them they could find out if people are related easier.

Bibliography
011. <http://www.senseme.com/scripts/biometrics/fingerprints. Http Fingerprint." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopaedia. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint>. "Untitled Document." SENSE Technologies. Web