How do you spot someone in a crowd? Is it by their clothes? Maybe by the way they style their hair? Or is it, like Mark Nixon, by “the bits they’re prepared to expose”?
Nixon isn’t being lewd here. Rather, he is a specialist in what he terms “identity science” – and what he’s trying to say is that people are really quite recognisable.
Take just the face, he says: “Did you know you could recognise people from their nose? And that ears show your gender?
“Actually,” he enthuses, “I’d say any bit you’re prepared to reveal, you could usually be recognised by.”
Of course, Nixon’s use of the term “recognised” is pretty loose.