This morning I Met Someone That Looked Like You” is a line taken from You Are Everything, a well-known classic love song written by Marvin Gaye on the heartache of a love-struck lover who yearns to see a past flame and, in the process, meets a man that is exactly like her.
We’ve had a moment of doubt about a stranger in the streets or someone we know. With seven billion people around all over the globe, it’s exciting and exciting, if not at all eerie, to think that replicas are out there and that you might meet your counterpart at some point!
Does Everyone Have a Doppelganger?
Dhurga Devi as well as Thavamalar share more than their looks. They both work in the identical department.
Dhurga Devi, as well as Thavamalar, might be misinterpreted as being one person. However, they’re different. Two individuals have a striking appearance. The most exciting thing is that they’re both in the same place in the Sunway Medical Centre.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE A DOPPELGANGER?
Doublegangers (German means “double walker”) are similar to you in that they do not have a genetic connection to you and are not connected to your genealogy. Still, for some strange reason, they share the same characteristics as you.
Doppelgangers Don’t Just Look Alike–They Also Share DNA
A new study has found commonalities in lifestyle and genetics among unrelated pairs of “virtual twins.”
Four pairs of “human doubles” are included in the study. Courtesy of Francois Brunelle
Doppelgangers share strikingly similar physical characteristics–they look so alike that, at times, these two unrelated people could easily pass for twins (or, at least, siblings).
New research has suggested that doubles are more common than is apparent. Faces with similar features can also share many similar genes and lifestyle traits, according to a recent study published on Tuesday in Cell Reports.
Individuals with similar facial characteristics would share similar DNA. However, this was the first time anyone established this fact scientifically, up until recently. The internet makes it much easier than before to discover and study doppelgangers.
To understand the nature of the genetic level between lookalikes, Scientists collaborated with Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle. In 1999, Brunelle moved across the globe to take intimate photographs of similar people in the “I’m not a lookalike!” project.
Researchers surveyed 32 pairs of Brunelle’s models and questions regarding their lives and submitted DNA samples.
With the help of facial recognition software, scientists looked at headshots of “human doubles” and computed scores to measure the similarities in their facial features. The scores were compared to identical twins’ scores, and it concluded that the software could award twin-like scores to just half of the duplicate pair.
Researchers then looked into participants’ DNA to determine if the similarities went beyond superficial. The researchers discovered that nine of the 16 highly similar-looking couples shared common genetic variants called single nucleotide polymorphisms. According to Gizmodo’s Ed Cara, the pairs appear “therefore like virtual twins,” claims Manel Esteller, a geneticist at the Spanish Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute.
Regarding how they live, “human doubles” were also more likely than those who were not to share traits, including their size, weight or smoking background, and education levels.
However, despite having identical genetics and characteristics, the two lookalikes have distinct microbiomes, which are communities of beneficial and destructive microbes inside and on the human body. They also had various epigenomes, which are variations in traits expressed that were influenced by experiences that have shaped the lives of previous generations. From the perspective of nature vs. nurture angle, the evidence suggests it is DNA and not the influence of environmental conditions or shared experiences in life which are the main reasons why doppelgangers appear.
With a growing population, there’s no doubt some genetic overlap through chance exists. “Because the human population is now 7.9 billion, these lookalike repetitions are increasingly likely to occur,” Esteller declares in a press release.
In addition to removing the curtains on one of the most fascinating mysteries in life, this research has significant medical implications in the coming years. According to the newspaper’s Sarah Knapton, individuals with similar DNA could be similarly susceptible to specific genetic disorders, which is why medical professionals could use facial analysis to provide a rapid and straightforward pre-screening tool.
Researchers believe that the results could aid police officers in identifying suspects’ faces using their samples’ DNA. However, the possibility of using this method goes into a murky area of ethics, according to Daphne Martschenko, a biomedical ethicist from Stanford University who was not associated with the research, according to New York Times’s Kate Golembiewski.
“We’ve already seen plenty of examples of how existing facial algorithms have been used to reinforce existing racial bias in things like housing and job hiring and criminal profiling,” Martschenko states to the Times.
Science is a product of art.
He turned to the arts to address a concern concerning science. They and their co-authors gathered 32 individuals with similar looks who participated in a photograph project called “I’m not a lookalike!” created by an artist from Canada—Canadian artist Francois Brunelle.
Researchers asked the pair to undergo an aDNA test. The participants filled in questions about their life experiences. Researchers also ran their photos through three distinct facial recognition software. The people they selected 16 pairs showed similar scores as identical twins discovered using the same software. Other 16 couples might appear similar to the eye of a human. However, the algorithm did not think that way in any facial recognition program.
Researchers then looked more closely at the DNA sequences of the participants. The two pairs that the software for facial recognition said were related had a lot more genetic markers in common in comparison to the other 16 pairs.
“We have been able to observe the similarities between these human-like creatures. In reality, they share a variety of genetic variants. They are also very similar in all of them.” Esteller said. “So they have these genetic differences that can be linked to the extent that they are shaped of the eye, the nose and mouth, lips and the structure of bones. That was the primary reason why genetics links the two. “
He said they are the same codes, but he added that this is just a chance.
“In the world right now, there are so many people that eventually, the system produces humans with similar DNA sequences,” Esteller explained. The same was likely true for years; however, with the advent of internet technology, it’s more accessible to identify genetically identical individuals.
He said that if they analyzed the pair, they found some other elements were different.
“There’s the reason they are not completely identical,” Esteller explained.
In a study by scientists, they found that when they looked at what’s known as the epigenomes of the duplicates that appeared the most similar, they found more significant distinctions. Epigenetics studies how environment and behaviour may alter a person’s gene function. If scientists examined the microbiome of pairs that looked the most similar, they found that the two were also distinct. Microbiomes are microorganisms, which include bacteria, viruses, and fungi that are too tiny to be seen by the eyes of a human and reside in our body.
“These results not only provide insights about the genetics that determine our face but also might have implications for the establishment of other human anthropometric properties and even personality characteristics,” the study stated.
The research has certain limitations. It was a small sample, which makes it impossible to know if the conclusions would apply to an even more significant number of people who look like. Researchers believe the results would be different in an even more substantial number of people. This study was also based on couples mainly composed of European origin. Therefore, it needs to be clarified if the findings would be comparable to those from other world regions.
Doctor. Karen Gripp, a paediatrician and geneticist from Nemours Children’s Health whose research is referenced in the study, said the investigation is fascinating and confirms some previous work.
“It’s a little bit different from the study, but it points in the same direction that changes in a person’s genetic material affect the facial structures, and that’s the same underlying assumption that was used in this study as being indeed confirmed, in contrast to some other things like the microbiome did not seem to be as relevant,” Gripp stated.
Concerning the issue of nature and nurture that the study raises, Gripp thinks that both are equally important.
“As a geneticist, I firmly believe in nature and the genetic material being essential to almost everything, but that does not take away from saying nurture is just as important,” Gripp declared. “For every person to be successful in the world, there are so many contributing factors, and the environment is so important that I don’t think it’s one or the other.”