[00:00.49]Several cases have been reported in Russia recently of people who can read and detect colours with their fingers,
[00:08.28]and even see through solid doors and walls.
[00:11.65]One case concerns and eleven-year-old schoolgirl, Vera Petrova,
[00:17.48]who has normal vision but who can also perceive things with different parts of her skin, and through solid walls.
[00:25.63]This ability was first noticed by her father.
[00:29.07]One day she came into his office and happened to put her hands on the door of a locked safe.
[00:35.62]Suddenly she asked her father why he kept so many old newspapers locked away there, and even described the way they were done up in bundles.
[00:45.64]Vera's curious talent was brought to the notice of a scientific research institute in the town of Ulyanovsk, near where she lives,
[00:55.10]and in April she was given a series of tests by a special commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federal Republic.
[01:03.56]During these tests she was able to read a newspaper through an opaque screen and,
[01:09.92]stranger still, by moving her elbow over a child's game of Lotto she was able to describe the figures and colours printed on it;
[01:19.79]and, in another instance, wearing stockings and slippers, to make out with her foot the outlines and colours of a picture hidden under a carpet.
[01:30.77]Other experiments showed that her knees and shoulders had a similar sensitivity.
[01:36.57]During all these tests Vera was blindfold;
[01:41.02]and, indeed, except when blindfold she lacked the ability to perceive things with her skin.
[01:47.57]It was also found that although she could perceive things with her fingers this ability ceased the moment her hands were wet.
