Why do fingers get wrinkly in the bath?
Bathtub Mountain Ranges
Why do fingers get wrinkly in the bath?
You're lying in the bathtub, warm water up to your shoulders, when you notice your fingertips have turned into miniature mountain ranges. Ten tiny wrinkled landscapes where smooth skin used to be. What's going on?
For a long time, people thought water was just soaking into your skin like a sponge, making it swell and buckle. But here's the strange part: if you cut the nerve to a finger, that finger stays smooth in water. A sponge doesn't need nerves to absorb water. So something else is happening.
