In case you couldn’t tell a person’s background by testing their blood or simply asking for their family tree, anthropologists are going a step further with this new discovery. Researchers at North Carolina State University say they can tell if a person is of African or European descent just by their fingerprints.
The Daily Mail reports that the prints of 61 African American women, 61 African American men, 61 European American women and 60 European American men were studied before drawing that conclusion. A finding like this could be a major breakthrough for detectives looking for suspects not registered in their system. However, it needs some work—like differentiating between men and women—before it can be implemented into the field. “This is the first study to look at this issue at this level of detail and the findings are extremely promising,” said Professor Ann Ross, who led the study.
If that wasn’t alienating enough, scientists have also developed a fingerprint test which can reportedly detect cocaine use. Supporters of the test say it can tell whether or not the drug has been ingested, not just touched. So if you’re of African or European descent with a coke problem and are asked to take a drug test, you might be in trouble. Researchers hope to have this test used by law enforcement agencies within the next decade.
