People curious about their fate could consult apalm reader who would tell their fortune by lookingat the lines on their palm. While there's no scientificevidence linking the lines on your palm to your fateor fortune, scientists have learned that your palmand finger prints do have a story to tell.

人们对自己的命运感到好奇时，就会去咨询手相专家。手相专家通过观察手掌上的细纹来算命。掌纹与人的命运或运气有无联系，这一点并没有科学依据来证明，但科学家认为掌纹和指纹里确实有文章。

The ridges on your hands, fingers, feet, and toesformed while you were still in the womb, five or six months before you were born. They are theresult of stress patterns that formed as your hands and feet developed. Because the growthpattern of every fetus is slightly different, your finger and palm prints are absolutelyunique.

在你出生前五、六个月，还在母亲子宫里的时候，你的手脚上就开始起皱。那些细纹就是手脚在发育时形成不同应力模式的结果。因为每个胎儿的发育模式略有不同，所以每个人的指纹和掌纹绝对是独一无二的。

Even identical twins have slightly different patterns. Differences in fingerprints have alwaysbeen useful to police detectives, but what can a doctor tell from looking at your prints?

即使是双胞胎也有细微的差别。侦探可以通过指纹来判案，那么医生能从指纹上看出什么呢?

Actually, quite a bit. Many genetic diseases affect the way that the fetus develops. This resultsin characteristic irregularities in the palm prints. Scientists have statistically linked dozens ofgenetic diseases to unusual palm prints.

实际上，这里面大有文章。许多遗传疾病影响着胎儿的发育模式，导致掌纹特征不规则。科学家们建立了数据库，将几十种遗传疾病与不规则的掌纹联系起来。

Sometimes even viral diseases can leave telltale traces on an infant's palm. For example,women who caught German measles early in pregnancy during the 1960's sometimes passedbirth defects along to their children.

有时候病毒性疾病也会在胎儿的掌纹上留下痕迹。比如20世纪60年代，在怀孕早期感染上德国麻疹的妇女会生下先天有缺陷的孩子。

A study in 1966 found that such children had characteristic palms and fingerprints as well.Studies have linked irregular palm prints to such diseases as schizophrenia, fetal alcoholsyndrome, and even allergies. While they can't tell you how long you'll live or how manychildren you'll have, the lines on your palm can tell you something.

1966年的一项研究发现这类孩子的掌纹和指纹与众不同?？蒲Ъ乙呀还嬖虻恼莆朴敫髦旨膊×灯鹄?，例如：精神分裂症、胎儿酒精综合症，甚至是过敏反应。虽然掌纹并不能告诉你你能活多久，你会生多少个孩子，但它能说明一些问题。