I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Disease Zone. It has scientists studying the causes and processes of illness . Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
ever lost a finger nail? I hit my thumb with a hammer about 3 months ago and it eventually turned black and fell off (sorry, I know it sounds gross). That was the first time I lost a finger nail and realized how handy they actually are! From picking up tiny objects, scratching, popping a pimple or opening a can, they’re actually very useful. Actually, come to think of it, if it wasn’t for my nail, I might have broken a bone inside my finger when I hit it with the hammer! So it’s probably very protective as well for women who think they can handle a hammer…
Scientists think it’s something that comes from a long time ago when they were maybe more like claws…..
Nails are made of keratin, same stuff as your hair is made of. It’s ‘dead’ material, produced by cells in your finger. So it’s not growing at the tip, it’s growing from the skin in your finger outwards.
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Dear Minamcmahon; I searched hard in the internet and found this; -If you look at your fingernail you will see a half moon shape that is lighter in color than the rest of your fingernail. This is called the lunula or matrix and the point from which your fingernail grows. This fingernail root is partially covered by the fingernail cuticle and is produced from living cells within the finger.
The fingernail has many parts; – the part we call ‘fingernail’ is actually called the nail plate. It is made of hardened protein(keratin), the nail bed, which is under the fingernail, the cuticle that protects infection from getting under and around the nails, and the nail folds on the side, which keep the nails in place.
As the cells in the finger produce new keratin to form the fingernail, it gathers at the base of the nail plate and is eventually pushed up and out. At new fingernail materials is pushed out, old fingernail material is pushed past the end of the fingertip making the fingernails longer. This dead fingernail material can then be cut.
Fingernails tend to grow slowly and at the average rage of 0.01 mm a day. Of course, different people’s fingernails grow faster or slower. Fingernails tend to grow faster than toenails, and fingernails on the dominant hand also grow faster probably because of greater circulation.
Why do people have fingernails? Natasha has explained it very well. Thanks to her.
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