Less Than Skin Deep: Humans Can Feel Molecular Differences Between Nearly Identical Surfaces
(World News Science)

How sensitive is the human sense of touch? Sensitive enough to feel the difference between surfaces that differ by just a single layer of molecules, a team of researchers at the University of California San Diego has shown. `This is the greatest tactile sensitivity that has ever been shown in humans,` said Darren Lipomi, a professor of nanoengineering and member of the Center for Wearable Sensors at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, who led the interdisciplinary project with V. S. Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and distinguished professor in the Department of Psychology at UC San Diego. Humans can easily feel the difference between many everyday...