The why of fingerprints

Heymatt:

What's up with fingerprints? Why do we have them? Other than using them to catch crooks, what good are they?

-- Knight Life, San Diego

You should be grateful every time you pick up a brew and slug it back that you have fingerprints. Tailgating, happy hour, martini parties-- nothing would be the same without fingerprints. The little whorls and ridges act like minuscule suction cups to help us manipulate tools and pick things up, especially cold, wet things in glass or aluminum. Maybe it would be cooler to have suction fingers like a gecko, but then what would become of the ladder industry? So raise a glass to the opposable thumb and fingerprints, two of the things that make us top dogs in the animal world.