A group of researchers put the theory to the test, letting twenty volunteers soak their fingers in warm water for 30 minutes to get them good and pruney, then testing exactly how long it took them to move wet glass marbles and fishing weights from one container to another. On average, pruney-fingered participants moved wet marbles 12 percent more quickly than when they were tested with unwrinkled fingers. When the same test was performed with dry marbles, the times were roughly the same. Thus, it seems, the hypothesis was proved: pruney fingers do help us grip better.
From the Smithsonian magazine.
Now I'm going to have to keep some marbles next to the bath. For science!
Posted by: svh | January 12, 2013 at 14:34
Rubbish! Pruney fingers never work in the bath when I drop the soap.
Posted by: peter horne | January 12, 2013 at 16:07
Obviously we need thousands of test subjects sitting in bathtubs for extended periods while trying to grip a wide range of household objects and popular brands of soap. Just to be sure the effect isn’t confined to wet marbles and fishing weights.
Posted by: David | January 12, 2013 at 16:40
You monster!
Posted by: AC1 | January 12, 2013 at 16:56
Damn, I was hoping that was finally settled. We're still agreed on opening eggs from the little end, right?
Posted by: WTP | January 12, 2013 at 21:23
Great work, scientists! And yet, I still don't have my flying car or personal jet pack... *sulks*
Posted by: JuliaM | January 13, 2013 at 05:33
Note the obligatory conjectural link to evolution that gives a requisite intellectual lustre to the project and forestalls any suggestion these scientists have lost their marbles.
Posted by: Peter | January 14, 2013 at 10:13