The two men met in Atlanta in 1997 when Mr. Malone sang in Mr. Chasen's band. They quickly became friends, but they didn't notice what other people were doing.
They are doppelgngers. They are not related. Their forebears are from different parts of the world.
The two friends, along with hundreds of other unrelated look-alikes, took part in a photography project by Franois Brunelle. The series was inspired by Mr. Brunelle discovering his own look-alike.
The project has been a hit on social media and other parts of the internet, but it has also drawn the attention of scientists who study genetics. A researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona wanted to look at people who look alike but aren't related to one another. He wanted to know what the explanation was for these people.
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports. The similarities between the participants' faces were quantified using facial recognition software. Similar scores were achieved by 16 of the 32 pairs. 16 pairs of doppelgngers were compared to each other to see if their genes were the same.
The 16 pairs who were true look-alikes shared more of their genes than the other 16 pairs. He said that the people looked alike because they shared important parts of the genome. He said that it would seem like common sense but never had been shown.
The whole story of our makeup isn't told solely by DNA. Our lived experiences and ancestors have an effect on which of our genes are switched on or off. Our environment has an effect on the Microbiome, our co-pilot made up ofbacteria, fungi and Viruses. The doppelgngers had the same genomes, but their epigenomes and microbiomes differed. He said that genetics put them together.
The discrepancy shows that the appearance of the pairs has more to do with their genes than with the environments they were raised in. Dr. Esteller had expected a bigger impact on the environment.
The doppelgngers have more in common with each other than they do with life experiences. Only a few ways to build a face are available.
The system is repeating itself due to the number of people in the world. You might have a look-alike out there.
If people have the same genes, they might share the same tendencies for diseases as well.
The director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, who was not involved with the study, said that there seems to be something strong in genetics that makes two individuals who look alike also having genome-wide similar profiles. He said that there could be discrepancies between people's actual appearance and their predictions.
The study might one day aid forensic science by providing a glimpse of the faces of criminal suspects known only from DNA samples. A researcher who was not involved with the study urged caution in applying the findings to forensics.
The study raises a lot of important ethical considerations, as we have already seen how existing facial algorithms have been used to reinforce existing racial bias.
The look-alike project and the knowledge that we all might have a secret twin is a way of bringing people together. The two men have been friends for 25 years. While not everyone with similar DNA shares such a bond, Mr. Malone said that he saw Mr. Brunelle's project as another way to connect all of us.
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