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RegularJoe@lemmy.world to science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 day ago

Doppelgängers Don't Just Look Alike—They Also Share DNA. New research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of “virtual twins”

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Doppelgängers Don't Just Look Alike—They Also Share DNA. New research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of “virtual twins”

www.smithsonianmag.com

RegularJoe@lemmy.world to science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 day ago
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Doppelgängers Don't Just Look Alike—They Also Share DNA
www.smithsonianmag.com
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New research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of "virtual twins"
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  • ChillCapybara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    20 hours ago

    Researchers say the findings may also someday help police investigators conjure up the faces of suspects from their DNA samples. But that potential application wades into murky ethical territory

    There it is

    • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      14 hours ago

      Yeah I’m sure it will never make a mistake or be relied upon as the gospel of jesus like you see with, oh idk every single piece of technology used by police provided it aligns with their existing bias at the moment

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        Find a dozen people who look like suspect. Do DNA analysis on dozen “doppelgangers”. Take DNA from “doppelganger” that is the closest match, present to court using “expert” witness.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    Bad news for people that look like famous serial killers.

    • Tiral@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      So that’s why I want to make people lamp shades so bad? /s

  • ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    17 hours ago

    This kinda feels like a “duh.” Or a “Well, makes sense”

    • dovahking@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Genetics, I can understand. But lifestyles? How?

  • hypna@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    If different people with similar visual characteristics have similar behavioral characteristics, doesn’t that imply that perhaps we can judge a book by its cover?

    • Little8Lost@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Yes but how much?

  • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
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    1 day ago

    Strange, almost like phenotype is dependent on genotype?

    • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      You’re telling me people whose genetics make them look similar have similar genetics???

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Not proven until now.

        These “duh” comments are always here in these situations.

        • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          We’re just joking around here my friend :) of course it’s important to confirm, still funny every time

          • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I hope so, that’s good to hear. Some people seem so pissed off when making such comments about “useless” studies. 😔

            • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 day ago

              People in text always sound more pissed off than they were. That mostly has to do with your expectations though ;)

              • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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                15 hours ago

                The hell? I guess we gotta fight now?

              • fartographer@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                You think this sounds angry???

                • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
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                  24 hours ago

                  Can you stop yelling?

      • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Big, if true

        • billionsandbillions@piefed.social
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          1 day ago

          Colossal, if legitimate

          • slampisko@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Gargantuan, if verifiable

            • TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk
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              21 hours ago

              Humongous, if credible

              • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world
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                18 hours ago

                Leviathianic, if decipherable

      • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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        1 day ago

        Does that mean you could guess a person’s personality from just their look?

        • hateisreality@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Well not their face, but definitely the shape of their skulls!

          • FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Of course you’d say that. You have the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter!

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      It seems this includes genes that don’t play a direct role in the formation of facial features.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yes, but it’s not necessarily the only way that would work. So this is very neat!

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      It is still interesting. I wonder if epigenetics plays a larger role, or if face look is tied to other random traits.

      • angrystego@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        The article says epigenetics don’t play much of a role in it, it’s all genetics.

  • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works
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    21 hours ago

    I’ve wondered this about people who act the same. They also tend to have some of the same facial expressions and mannerisms.

    Maybe like our brains have certain tempaltes of personalities that we alter along the way. A starter personality of sorts.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      I mean there’s this town in rural [state my family had a farm in but now we don’t hallelujah farm work is hard] that everyone looks like me because, well, go back far enough and all 500 of them and me are related. First time I went to the old farm it was frightening. Like walking into a clone factory.

    • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      There are only so many permutations of topological entanglement!

      7 colors × 6 directions = 42 types of individual entanglement within the topological matrix we are not IN but rather ARE

  • rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net
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    19 hours ago

    How similar is DNA from convergent evolution animals?

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      I mean, my uncle (who spent very little time with his bio father) has all the same mannerisms as him. As do I and my mother and one of my brothers. Some of it is that we inherited similar skeletal structure so our posture is similar. Some of it, I dunno.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      well, at some point, everything is a crab.

      so I would assume pretty similar.

      great question though.

  • NullPointerException@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    DNA has a limited number of genes. Considering the enormous amount of functions they need to encode, the number of genes for each function becomes relatively small. 8 billion people and thousands of generations, we’re bound to have duplicates.

    • Brocon@lemmy.world
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      I would say it’s even smaller in number. Because some combinations would not work and might kill you.

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Yes, but the article says that certain combinations occur more often that if it was random. People with similar faces tend to have similar genes that are nor related to facial features.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      That’s not exactly true. A lot of DNA is redundant, and a lot of DNA is dead code that doesn’t do anything.

      • jaycifer@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Since you’ve only been told that you’re wrong, and I was also under the impression that there was a lot of junk DNA in our genome, I did a little digging and found this article that explains the progression of our understanding pretty well: https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/human-dna-98-of-your-genetic-code-is-junk-or-is-it

        The TLDR is that the original junk DNA hypothesis is based on the fact that only ~2% of DNA is actually used in mapping out protein-construction. That was generally supported by the science from the 70’s to the early 2000’s. What scientists have found in the decades since then is that a lot of what DNA does involves regulating activity in the cell and responding to changing circumstances.

      • Staff@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        Is it really dead code, or we haven’t found out what it does?

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        That’s a very outdated idea.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    22 hours ago

    I always wondered about this in terms of I have known some types of folks that look similar and actually often have similar social traits and this includes me to.

  • OldGrayDog@fedinsfw.app
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    1 day ago

    Or maybe we’re living in a simulation and whatever is generating it only has a finite number of characters. 😲

  • Venia Silente@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    …We all look like 98% similar.

    • EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml
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      they all look the same…

      thinks some alien, prolly

      • Ageroth@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        They’re made out of meat

        • EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          I love this short story!

  • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 hours ago

    So should you avoid having kids with someone you look similar too then? Like is it that the virtual twins have genetic similarities akin to 3rd cousins or siblings…

    • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      This is why my sister and I always use protection.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      18 hours ago

      I mean, iirc there’s no genetic reason first cousins shouldn’t have kids, I doubt third cousins would be a problem.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        First cousins not having kids is generally good since it prevents the founder effect from getting too bad or long term inbreeding like with Charles of Spain or really any European royal.

    • HubertManne@piefed.social
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      22 hours ago

      Thats plain rediculous. How can I possibly find someone good enough looking then?

  • Vereesh@masto.ai
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    1 day ago

    @RegularJoe I’m curious about how this might work across ethnicities. I can’t point to a photo, but several times, I’ve noticed people from other continents who could easily be someone I know here, except they’re African, or Asian, when the person I know is white, just for example. Under the expected differences in hair, eyes, etc, the basic facial structure is the same. A DNA match seems less likely in these cases.

    • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldOP
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      23 hours ago

      I don’t have a great answer other than of the 32 studied, these were their stratification:

      Related to population stratification, among the 16 look-alike pairs, 13 were of European ancestry, 1 Hispanic, 1 East Asian, and 1 Central-South Asian.

      Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)01075-0

      But whether people who look close enough to perform as another, such as the “Chinese Obama” (Xiao Jiguo) I can’t say.

      https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/chinese-president-barack-obama-lookalike-xiao-jiguo-charges-1-500-n444251

      Then there’s Indonesia’s former president, Joko Widodo:

      https://nextshark.com/people-love-indonesias-president-looks-like-barack-obama

      It would be interesting to get the researchers to analyze their DNA.

      • Vereesh@masto.ai
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        17 hours ago

        @RegularJoe thank you! This is quite interesting. I’d forgotten about the celebrity look-alikes you mentioned. I’m not surprised the studies aren’t there.

    • borth@sh.itjust.works
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      I don’t think it’s about a DNA match. Those people you mention could share more DNA than the rest of us, which could account for their similarities, but their DNA will never “match” anyone else’s.

      • Smeagol666@crazypeople.online
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        1 day ago

        All humans are within 23 degrees of being cousins. The thing that surprised me most is that sub Saharan Africans are the most diverse genetically speaking.

  • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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    24 hours ago

    Why didn’t they give FB-007 shirts?

    • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 hours ago

      Any qualified 007 could report to Q for cutting edge clothing and gear?

  • StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Nice to see research shared like this, thanks. I’ve always been fascinated by facial similarities. The other thing I often look at, especially when pronounced, is the difference in the two hemispheres of the face.

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