When were fingerprints first used to identify people? Detailed answer

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When were fingerprints first used to identify people? Detailed answer

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When were fingerprints first used to identify people?

Even prehistoric man was aware of the fact that there are lines, patterns on the fingertips of a person, and they are different for different people. Chinese tablets were found on which a fingerprint stood instead of a signature. Therefore, we can say that fingerprint identification has existed for at least two millennia. But it's one thing to know that fingerprints are uniquely individual, and quite another thing to scientifically generalize this information.

The first important contribution to the science of fingerprint identification was made by Marcello Malpighi in 1686. Malpighi, an Italian anatomist, studied the lines on his fingertips under a microscope. He saw that these lines form spirals and loops.

Fingerprints were first officially used to identify prisoners in 1858. A few years later, the first studies on the possible use of fingerprints were published. This study described a method for taking fingerprints using a thin film coated with a special ink. This method is still in use today.

In 1880, Sir Francis Galton, an English scientist, began working on a classification system for fingerprints. A few years later the system was simplified by Sir Edward Henry, Commissioner of Police in London. Fingerprinting soon became widespread as a means of identifying and solving crimes. Did you know that in many maternity hospitals these days newborn babies have foot prints taken? It is also a means of identification.

Author: Likum A.

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What is a radio telescope?

The world's first telescope was made by the Dutch optician Hans Lipperthey. However, even before him, starting from the 33th century, various scientists experimented with magnifying lenses. The invention of Lippertheus, who lived in extreme poverty, went unnoticed, and the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who designed his first telescope a year later, began to be considered the creator of this device. It was a very crude and primitive device: the most powerful of Galileo's telescopes gave only XNUMXx magnification, and besides, a very small area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe sky (the size of a quarter of the moon) could be observed through it.

Nevertheless, with his help, Galileo managed to make outstanding discoveries: he was the first to discover the rings of Saturn, the four satellites of Jupiter, and made out the mountains and craters on the Moon. Nowadays, the principle that Galileo based his invention is used in theatrical binoculars, since they do not require either high magnification or a wide field of view. However, the telescopes themselves have undergone an extraordinary transformation since the days of Galileo. With the advent of the age of electronics, it became possible to create a fundamentally new device - a radio telescope.

The first radio telescope was built shortly after the end of World War II and has been constantly improved since then. This device is like a giant eye that "sees" the radio waves emitted by the stars, just as our eyes see the light waves emitted from them.

The mirror of the telescope is a huge saucer-shaped reflector of radio waves many meters in diameter. Its great advantage over an ordinary telescope is that it can detect stars and galaxies that emit very little or no light at all and therefore cannot be detected with even the most advanced optical instruments.

A radio telescope can also penetrate the gas or cosmic dust that fills vast expanses of space. In addition, it can be used in any weather, as radio waves easily pass through clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. One of the largest radio telescopes in the world with a diameter of 300 m was built in Puerto Rico in the crater of an extinct volcano by an American scientist.

A very peculiar radio telescope, consisting of fixed elements located along a circle with a diameter of 600 m, was installed in 1976 in the USSR in the North Caucasus.

Test your knowledge! Did you know...

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