Question: Why when you get out of a swimming pool your fingers wrinkle?

Maheen Siddiqui answered on 15 Jun 2016:

Although its invisible, the outermost layer of your skin is actually covered in its own special oil called “sebum”. This oil actually moistens your skin, protects it and makes it waterproof. That’s why when you wash your hands, the water runs off your skin rather than getting soaked like a sponge!

If you stay in a swimming pool for a while, the sebum gets washed away. This means that there is no longer that protective layer of water under your skin and water can penetrate the outer layer, thats when the wrinkles form. Scientists have recently discovered that this may be an involuntary reaction by the “autonomic nervous system” – the part of the nervous system responsible for things you are not conscious of, for example breathing and digesting food. So why does this involuntary reaction occur? Because it makes it easier for you to grip things under water, a bit like tread tires to drive in the rain!

If you think about it, the body is quite clever – it senses you have been in water for a while, so it tries to adapt the body to help you! Amazing, right?