Jimmy Tampin

• BSc (Hons) Biology
• Do water-induced finger wrinkles act as rain treads?

The rain tread theory proposes that wrinkles that appear on human fingertips when exposed to water are used to channel the water away from the fingertips to give them better grip. Kareklas et al. (2013) showed that wrinkled fingers indeed improve grip, but the mechanism is still unknown. In the proposed project, the objects will have rain treads on them. The prediction is that if wrinkles serve as rain treads, the rain tread on the objects will make the wrinkles on the fingers unnecessary and therefore wrinkling will no longer make a difference in the time it takes to pass the objects through the hole in submerged conditions. 

Funding Source: Newcastle University