We appreciate good service, a smile, maybe some advice or tips, and a nice handshake on the way out.

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One of the most plausible origin theories is that the handshake was a way to show you held no weapon in your hand.

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But for individual managers and workers, a merger can mean a handshake and a one-way walk to the exit.

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Dr Wu and Mr Pearl realised that if they could stop the handshake happening, they would have a way of dampening the immune system's ability to detect transplanted organs.

ECONOMIST: Breaching the body's defences

The real advances will come at least a decade from now, when onboard computers will negotiate, from hundreds of kilometers away, the best way for two planes to avoid each other in a process similar to the digital handshake between two computers sharing data on a network.

FORBES: Technology

There is still some way to go before a "smart camera" can tell the difference between details such as a handshake and a punch, but Velastin believes they are not too far away.

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