Science is your friend
Rachel has become hooked on Orphan Black, a new BBC American show, and has shown me the first three episodes. It's very good and I can highly recommend it--but there is one niggling little Science Thing that they didn't properly research that is bothering me.
It's, as Paul Simon would say, about "the myth of fingerprints". That is to say, the myth that they are genetic. They are not. The little sworls on our fingertips are not governed by our genes but by the environment in our mothers' wombs when we are in utero. And since everyone's in utero experience is absolutely unique, even that of identical twins or identical quads or whatever, everyone's fingerprints really are different, even if two people are otherwise genetically identical.
They got this right on Ringer, which didn't have as much going for it as Orphan Black, so I kind of wish they'd gotten it right on OB. :sigh: Oh well. I'm still enjoying it. But I won't be reading anything about it until I'm done all of the episodes--I don't want to see anything spoilery. (Unfortunately, people watching Mad Men haven't been putting spoilery things behind cuts for those of us who don't get to see it yet, and that's been kind of annoying...)
I'm also not clear about why anyone thinks the story is set anywhere other than Toronto. Having been to Toronto, that was clear to me from the start. It's obviously not in the US. Anyone who thinks there's only one "Scarborough" in the world needs to get out a little more.
It's, as Paul Simon would say, about "the myth of fingerprints". That is to say, the myth that they are genetic. They are not. The little sworls on our fingertips are not governed by our genes but by the environment in our mothers' wombs when we are in utero. And since everyone's in utero experience is absolutely unique, even that of identical twins or identical quads or whatever, everyone's fingerprints really are different, even if two people are otherwise genetically identical.
They got this right on Ringer, which didn't have as much going for it as Orphan Black, so I kind of wish they'd gotten it right on OB. :sigh: Oh well. I'm still enjoying it. But I won't be reading anything about it until I'm done all of the episodes--I don't want to see anything spoilery. (Unfortunately, people watching Mad Men haven't been putting spoilery things behind cuts for those of us who don't get to see it yet, and that's been kind of annoying...)
I'm also not clear about why anyone thinks the story is set anywhere other than Toronto. Having been to Toronto, that was clear to me from the start. It's obviously not in the US. Anyone who thinks there's only one "Scarborough" in the world needs to get out a little more.