Sir — Your News report on the fake finger-prints made by mathematician TsutomuMatsumoto, using gelatin and a plasticmould (Nature 417, 676; 2002), isinteresting, but hardly novel. An analogousbut more elegant technique was describedby the great British mystery writer R.Austin Freeman in The Red Thumb Mark,first published by Collingwood Brothers,London, in 1907.

In the book, Freeman, in the guise ofhis scientific detective Dr Thorndyke,explained how regions of a plate of“chromicized gelatine” exposed to lightunder a negative image of a fingerprint

would be inversely soluble in hot water,according to how much light each areareceived. Gelatin under the fingerprintridges would receive more light and wouldbe preserved when the plate was rinsedwith hot water. A three-dimensionalgelatin replica of a fingerprint would result.

“The process that I have described,”said Thorndyke, “is, in all essentials, thatwhich is used in the reproduction of pen-and-ink drawings, and any of the hundredsof workmen who are employed in thatindustry could make a relief block of afinger-print with which an undetectableforgery could be executed.” I have no

doubt that Freeman’s gelatin fingerprintcould fool an optical scanner as well as Matsumoto’s.

Many more details are provided in TheRed Thumb Mark, which mystery buffsamong Nature’s readers will doubtlessenjoy — even though I have given awaypart of the ending. This is one of several DrThorndyke stories that have recently beenreprinted (Stratus, London, 2001).David Ehrenfeld Department of Ecology, Evolution, and NaturalResources, Cook College, Rutgers, the StateUniversity of New Jersey, 14 College Farm Road,New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8551, USA

correspondence

NATURE | VOL 417 | 8 AUGUST 2002 | www.nature.com/nature 583

Classic detective puts his finger on the clueA fictional gumshoe was first to pick up the intriguing criminal potential of ‘gummy fingers’.

Microcredit tackles bothpoverty and birthrateSir — It is worrying that populationgrowth should be absent from the agendaof the forthcoming United Nations WorldSummit on Sustainable Development, asoutlined by Wolfgang Lutz et al. inCorrespondence (Nature 418, 17; 2002).

It is also worrying that empowerment of women can be mentioned withoutpointing to successful enterprises such asthe Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, whichmakes small loans to help pennilesswomen set up in business. These areknown as ‘microcredit’ or ‘microlending’enterprises. To read some of the numeroussuccess stories arising from these smallloans, often $100 or less, see, for example,www. greenstar.org/microcredit or readBanker to the Poor, the autobiography ofGrameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus(with Alan Jolis; Aurum, London, 1998).

Microlending, under the rulespioneered by the Grameen Bank, hasturned the empowerment of women andthe reduction of fertility from mere slogansinto a growing reality.Michael E. McIntyreCentre for Atmospheric Science, Department ofApplied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,Cambridge University, Silver Street, CambridgeCB3 9EW, UK

Israeli terms are used forconsistency, not politics Sir — Knut Rognes in Correspondence(Nature 417, 379; 2002) accused the IsraelJournal of Entomology (IJE) of beingpolitical, not scientific, claiming that theeditor (I. Y.) and a member of the editorial

board (A.F.) refused to accept thegeographical terms he used for Israel andadjacent areas in a manuscript he intendedto submit (see also Nature 418, 273; 2002).

The policy of the IJE has always been topromote science, not politics. One aspectof good science is a precise and consistentterminology. It is particularly difficult tomaintain consistent geographicalterminology in an area such as that coveredby our journal, because of the prevalentand concurrent use of several languages(such as Arabic, Hebrew and English) forthe names of the same localities, and theexistence of many spelling variants. Toovercome this difficulty, the IJE establisheda standard specified in the Notes forAuthors (latest version July 2001), asfollows: “Names of localities in Israel willbe given as they are transliterated in theIsrael Touring Map” and “Regions in Israeland nearby areas should follow the FaunaPalaestina map”. These two maps are givenfor convenience of scientific purposes only,without any political connotation.

Not only has Rognes tried to impose onus his irrelevant political views, but theseviews are literally wrong. At present, thereis no Palestinian state. If and when aPalestinian state is established, withdefined boundaries and scholarly officialmaps, we will use their transliteratedspelling for the appropriate localities. Until then, we will remain with ourcurrent policy, as would any scientificjournal (including the journal Fauna ofSaudi Arabia, which, as correctlymentioned by Rognes, ignores theexistence of recognized states).

The IJE has never “banned any mentionof Palestinian national territory”, asRognes claims; as a scientific journal wesimply do not find it necessary to deal withpolitical concerns of authors. We hope

that, following this clarification, Rogneswill return to us, and we shall welcome hispaper in the IJE, where it indeed belongs. Amnon Freidberg*, Ilan Yarom†*Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, TelAviv 69978, Israel †Hazeva R&D Center, Ben-Gurion University ofthe Negev, PO Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel

Bioethics: centres revealsponsors but not policy Sir — I would like to correct a statementattributed to me in the News story “Codeof conduct for bioethics branded ‘soft’ oncorporate ties” (Nature 417, 885–886;2002). Your article states that theUniversity of Pennsylvania’s centre is theonly one to provide information about itsfunding sources on its website.

On 7 June, the Center for Science in thePublic Interest wrote to more than 125bioethics centres and journals, urgingthem to develop or strengthen theirconflict of interest policies. Our surveyindicates that although only one centre —the University of Pennsylvania’s Center forBioethics — provides its policy on externalfunding and conflicts of interest on itswebsite, several others do publicly discloseinformation about their funding sources.

Although we believe that bioethicscentres, individual bioethicists andjournals are doing an extremely poor job of disclosing potentially biasingfinancial ties, they are not quite asnegligent as your article suggests.Virginia Ashby SharpeCenter for Science in the Public Interest, 1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300,Washington, DC 20009-5728, USAwww.integrityinscience.org

© 2002 Nature Publishing Group