A 2023 study from Florida International University had 30 men and 30 women hold cotton balls for 10 minutes in hands that hadn’t been washed for at least an hour.
Those cotton balls were analyzed using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify the individual chemicals that made up the various Volatile Organic Compounds of the participants.
Using a type of data analysis known as chemometrics, researchers identified the gender of the participants based on their hand odor with stunning 96.67% accuracy.
Men’s and women’s hands produce different odors. One day, subtle chemical fingerprints might prove volatile to a forensic scientist at a crime scene.
St. Padre Pio (1887-1968) had stigmata in his hands, and they smelled of roses to some and tobacco to others. The doctor observed that at death the stigmata completely healed without any trace or scar.
It is probable that the path of the nine-inch crucifixion nail was through His wrist, into His hand, to the cross, the wrist to support body weight and the hand to cause pain. If you bend your hand back, from the side you can see how a long nail could penetrate the wrist first and exit the lower part of the hand, and such a strike would have to be made by an expert soldier.
His pierced hands plead for us every day.