Short Stuff: Pruney Skin | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh. and Chuck's here and Jerry's sitting in. for Dave and that makes this a short. stuff do you want to take it from here. sure uh I had this idea because of a. story that I'm going to very quickly. tell that may make people think I'm a. terrible parent but my daughter the. other day was in the bathtub.

for seven plus. hours what what what' she do and there. she read or play video games or she's. always like long bath she just kicks it. and plays with her little action figures. we call them her cuckoo and she's always. just done voices and Little madeup. Worlds and just sometimes it's music. sometimes it's her favorite podcast uh. story Pirates but uh the other day she. got in early in the morning it was a. Saturday she didn't have anything going.

on mhm and she just stayed and stayed. and then I I think was playing it up. because I kept going in there every hour. and saying a new household record and. then I would say the time and she just. thought it was. hysterical so she came out I'm going to. text you actually right now the picture. of her hand okay and I've never seen. anything like it and it made me think. like you know what I don't even really. know why people's hands and feet prune. up anyway and that's where this was born. what a fantastic story what a great.

origin story for this do you have your. phone I do lay it on me all right I send. it to you it's. incredible you know I'll post this uh on. my Instagram Chuck the podcaster when. this comes out because people should see. this my God isn't that amazing wow she. looks like Benjamin Button after he was. first born yeah it's really something. that is amazing I'll bet you were like. how does this happen when you saw well. the first thing I looked up was like. have I done something really wrong is. this D ous and uh it is not you can sit.

in the water like that and it's all fine. and good and your hands will and feet. will go back to normal soon enough. that's awesome have I done something. wrong uh yes it's GNA be like that. forever so um okay there's a great. question this is a tailor made short. stuff Chuck like what makes your skin. prune up when there it's submerged in. the water and it's not just any part of. your skin it's specifically your hands. and your feet and in particular your. fingertips and Toes that really get.

pruny at least. first and the answer is uh we're not. 100% sure why that happens there's some. good guesses but science seems to have. gotten to the bottom of how it happens. yeah it was uh for a long time I think. up until like the early 20th century um. science basically thought it was. osmosis so you know the movement of. water from one place to another in this. case um from the outer layers the drier.

outer layers of the skin uh Retreats. essentially and so your skin and hands. are. um expands that surface area and it just. gets wrinkly but then they were like. wait a minute that's not the case no. because somebody figured out in the. 1930s that if you have nerve damage on. your fingertips you can soak and palm. Olive till the cows come home and you're. not going to get pruny fingers so like. that doesn't make any sense like if it's.

just osmosis like it should happen to. anybody with skin in water that's just. how that works so they're like since. it's nerve damage that makes us think. that there's some sort of um maybe. autonomic nervous system control going. on and it turns out that's exactly what. it is and the original scientists who. thought that it was it wrinkled from. your skin puffing up were kind of. looking at it backwards mhm uh and it. turns out your skin is actually. shrinking it when it gets all pruny from. being in the water yeah it's um Vaso.

constriction so your blood vessels under. the epidermis are. shrinking and uh it's just a response to. water when you put something in water. for your skin that is in water too long. uh the nervous system is going to. restrict that blood flow automatically. it's a part of like you said the. autonomic system which controls. perspiration and breathing and the. things we don't need to think about and. this is just another one you lose that. volume in each little fingertip and they. shrink Inward and it looks pruny yeah so.

rather than puffing out paying attention. to those ridges you wanted to look at. The. Valleys that's the key The Valleys yeah. The Valleys science finally figur that. out and apparently they've known it for. decades I didn't know what it was until. just now so thanks for that um and I say. we take a break because it's kind of. like the Wild Wild West just a total. free-for-all in explaining why that. happens.

[Music]. [Music]. [Music]. just stay on the surface seriously.

so Chuck there's a bunch of different. theories about why are fingers prune. because if you think about it it doesn't. really make sense if it's not OS osmosis. and it's just like a passive response to. being in water but our actual nervous. system is doing this why is there an. evolutionary advantage to it because. think about it it takes energy to do. that and over time that would suggest. that natural selection selected for that. trait in humans and it turns out.

macx yeah that's right weirdly um and. this is the theory that I think a lot of. scientists have gotten behind and they. say they've I'm not sure if they can say. they've really really proved it but they. have done some studies that sort of. indicate that it may be true um but. there was a guy in. 2011 uh named Mark. changizi and Mark changii said hey I got. a little theory on why skin prunes if. you want to hear. it and actually he was an evolutionary.

neurobiologist so he probably didn't. talk like that but he was in Boise Idaho. and he and his colleague said what we. think is going on is that it is an. evolutionary adaptation that is a. benefit to us and that is it makes us. able to grip things better when our. hands or the thing or both are wet right. and everybody else went prove it and. some other people did I think a UK group. um from new University actually took.

that theory and put it to the test and. they found out that uh if you pick up. wet or dry objects marbles specifically. of varying sizes if your fingers are. pruny you are 12% faster at picking up. wet marbles than somebody whose fingers. aren't pruny or just plump and dry like. normal yeah that's significant that's a. that's a big difference 12% faster I. tried to give an example or figure out. an example I can't but just accept that.

that's actually a pretty pretty it's a. reasonable difference that suggests like. no there's an actual like ad this is an. adaptation right and yeah the the way. that it's kind of described is that like. our fingers turn into tire tread in wet. conditions almost yeah that's a perfect. way to describe it um the way that one. of the biologists at Newcastle um. explained it is completely incorrect. which bothers me yeah cu he said we've.

shown that they give better grip in wet. conditions true uh it could be working. like treads on your car tires true mhm. this is the part that's not right he. says which allows more of the tire to be. in contact with the road and gives you a. better grip uh not true at all because. while he may know a lot about brain. stuff this guy didn't know nothing about. car racing no he just knows he likes to. ride in cars yeah because uh uh you know. race cars have slicks on them because. you have 100% contact with the road and. much better grip Treads actually give.

you less grip the reason you have Treads. is to so the water um spills on a wet. Road spills between the Treads like a. little Valley and that's the same thing. that's happening here yeah it channels. water through it so that you're yeah so. you actually do have less contact but. better. traction yeah so aside from that I think. like standing ovation for me on this. Theory and and proving it with a game of. marbles I cannot agree with you on that.

oh yeah what do you think buddy I have a. question that's what I think I have a. question uhhuh does it have to have a. function can it just be a consequence of. the fact that we have evolved to um send. our hot blood toward the core when we're. submerged in water to Keep Us Alive to. keep the important bits alive which. means that the blood flows away from our. extremities like our fingertips and. because of that our fingertips just kind. of shrink like they're saying like it's. Vaso constriction does it have to does.

it have to have a reason evolutionarily. or can it just be a consequence of that. a byproduct that doesn't make any sense. or it just so happens it gives us better. grip or we have better grip when our. fingers are pruning well I mean is that. a question you could ask about any. evolutionary Advantage is like did that. just happen and it was coincidence that. it turned out to be good for our. survival no because I mean uh let's say. flying flight in Birds right even if.

that did just happen to evolve as an. accident or a consequence of something. else which I don't think it did it was. so quickly and so thoroughly selected. that they think that flight occurred it. like evolves separately in different. areas of the world at different times. it's just that it's just that. advantageous this is not particularly. advantageous and it's possible humans. are just reading more deeply into. something I know you know what I was. saying I'm eventually just restating my.

case here uh I would argue that it is. and they argue that it is advantageous. because uh Tuk Tuk in the rain is able. to gather more 12% more in fact uh wet. berries than uh then he would have had. he not had that wrinkled skin and also. potentially better attaction on slippy. Rock surfaces with those pruny toes okay. and so Tuk Tuk isn't falling and hitting. his little head okay Mr smar.

why if it's just so advantageous to have. why aren't our fingers pruny all the. time answer well I know you're being koi. because I have no idea but they did ask. those scientists that same question and. they said that it's not too clear but. their initial thought was um here's the. quote our initial thoughts are that this. is uh that this could diminish the. sensitivity in our fingertips or could. increase a risk of damage uh through. catching on objects so skin goes back to. smooth fingertips uh when it's not.

needed because that um you know isn't so. great to have full-time okay that's a. reasonable explanation to that one yeah. so I guess um well I'm not going to say. that the case is subtle because I just. don't agree hey man I respect your. opinion and you know what I don't really. have one one way or the other I just. think it's interesting all right that's. great well everybody chucks at hey man. which means short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of of iHeart radio for more.

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