Doppelgangers who aren't closely related by blood, but just look incredibly alike, are something you've heard about. Do you have one and just how similar are they?
There is a follow up scientific study and a fascinating photography project.
Franois Brunelle's photos show how much a doppelganger can look like someone else. We should clarify that these are not related.
The Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain was interested in Brunelle's photos. They were able to track down 32 pairs of people that Brunelle photographed. With the help of a team of researchers, they were able to narrow down which pairs were the most similar to 16.
The findings, published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports, showed that those 16 doppelganger pairs had much more similar DNA than the remaining pairs who weren't considered as visually similar, and also ruled out any relation between them.
That is not the only thing. The weight and height were not far apart.
The New York Times quotes Esteller as saying that the people look alike because they share the same genes.
It seems like common sense that people who look alike have more in common than people who don't.
The question is more complicated than it appears, and involves the world of epigenetics. Environmental factors in a person's upbringing can affect the expression of genes and how you look.
It's hard to say how much of a role the genomes play, but the findings of the study show that the bigger role is played by the genomes.
Nature is very strong, but nurture tunes up the genome a bit.
It's down to sheer numbers. With billions of people in the world, there is bound to be someone out there that looks like you.
It could have some useful medical implications, like using physical indicators to assess a patient's risk of disease, but it could also have some damaging ones.
It's a revelation that needs to be approached with caution.
In the 90s, cops used newborn baby's genetic makeup to nail their father for crimes.
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