Twins or Clone has turned heads and sparked lively discussions since its proposal in the early twentieth century. Is it ethical? How far is it? More importantly, can it be used to duplicate your puppy Biddle silly puppy because he is the best silly puppy around the world? Yes, he is?
After more than a century of discussion, we have at least one answer to one of these questions. Now, spitting into the faces of nature and Michael Crichtonalike, it’s possible to create a genetic copy of your beloved puppy. What some might see as “an interference in the realm of powers that are not meant for man,” others as a way to keep their cool until long after their brain has been preserved cryogenically for be placed in a higher robot body later date.
And as every time scientific morality is put to the test, there remains only one question: how much this technological affront with God will it cost you?
DOG CLONES: BUT AT WHAT (LITERAL) COST?
At present, there is only one game in town for the cloning of pets in the United States, this is the goal of Viagen, which sounds objectively as a society. Viagen offers “state-of-the-art accommodations, a nutrient-rich diet, specialized veterinary care and many other features” as part of its all-inclusive dog photocopying service. With all this charm, your standard puppy enthusiast would probably pay twice the asking price of $ 50,000.
Yes, it costs about 50 wholesale to produce a scaled copy of your beloved pet, according to the Viagen website. And you know what? If you have this money to spend, this may seem like a great idea. Pets are special for us. It’s just that, and not to ride on a high horse, you can also pay a fraction of a percent and go to a dog from your local shelter. They are great.
STRANGE FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT TWINS
The concept of twins seems to resonate in a sci-fi sci-fi story, probably also involving tralfamadorians and / or monetary trees. Seriously, think about it: people with a genetic duplicate, formed at once and sharing the same DNA? Yes, clones in the womb. I got it. Come on, Vonnegut, you’re going too far in reality.
Everyone knows the basic story of birds and bees. Mr. Sperm swims and meets Mrs. Egg, then boom – fertilization! But twins are like the ingenious plot no one has ever seen coming. Ask any twin and he’ll tell you that having a natural clone is the coolest thing. But being a twin is not just about sharing secret handshakes and changing class in high school.
IDENTICAL TWINS HAVE DIFFERENT FINGERPRINTS
The term “identical twins” is not just a fun party story that shows how much your friend Chris looks a lot like Sylvester Stallone (yes, that’s very convincing). The identical twins are called “identical” because they are almost identical. The identical twins are clones of nature and, even if they do not want to share the same character, they can not help but share the same DNA. However, as the New York Times points out, even though their faces are inseparable, and even though they wear matching t-shirts with the words Thing # 1 and Thing # 2, the fingerprints of identical twins.
How could such blasphemy be possible? Well, because the virtues, loops and fun shapes we call fingerprints are “friction ridges” right from the womb. These ridges are caused by a fetus touching the walls around them. According to experts such as Dr. Michael Roizen, the shapes of the ridges vary depending on the position of the fetus, as well as the density of the spiral amniotic fluid around their fingers at different times. Identical twins occupy different parts of the amniotic sac, so that their hands are pressed against different places. Basically, the shape of a person’s fingerprints is more personalized than your favorite Chipotle burrito.
For this reason, the Tech Museum of Innovation says that fingerprinting is pretty much the only reliable way police investigators can determine which twin has committed a crime. So yes, sorry Jimmy. You can not blame your shoplifting on Timmy unless you wear gloves.
IDENTICAL AND FRATERNAL TWINS ARE SAME?
Grouping the “identical” and “fraternal” types into a “twin” category is like saying that lime and apple are “pies”. It is time to decipher a double language. Anyone with twin friends or twin families has probably already heard about both variants. What many people may not realize is that these two “types” of twins are created by totally different situations in the woman’s body.
First, identical twins. To return to birds and bees, when the sperm fertilizes the egg, it becomes a zygote, which gives a baby. But each time in a blue moon, this simple zygote splits into two embryos, which leads – it is true – to identical twins. This is why the identical, the monozygotic twins, have the same DNA: they were exactly the same zygote at first, until they shake hands, separate and decide to be two people instead. Now, there is an amicable settlement.
Regarding the fraternal twins, the American Pregnancy Association says it’s a different game. The fraternal twins, the dizygotic twins, occur when the mother has two eggs, and these two eggs are fertilized by two distinct sperm cells. You understand? Two eggs + two sperm = fraternal twins. Two fraternal twin sisters are therefore not “clones” and do not share more DNA than their ordinary siblings. Instead, it’s just sisters who rented the same belly at the same time.
SOMETIMES, ONE TWIN VANISHES IN THE NIGHT
Previously, before “ghost images” became an escape from OKCupid, some twins were already masters of it. One of the most disturbing things that can occur during a twin pregnancy is what is called fetal resorption, or what experts like Professor Robert Wool call the “Twin Endangered Syndrome”. This describes a situation in which a mother passes an ultrasound, discovers that she has twins, and then comes back later to discover that one of the twins has been completely destroyed and she will have only one baby. Ghosts!
So what happens to this poor missing twin? Where do these teleportation powers come from? Thanks to the X-Men comics, we know it now. The missing twins become dangerous supervillains, like Charles Xavier’s psychotic twin, Cassandra Nova. Watch your back, Charles.
The American Pregnancy Association offers the most plausible explanation that a twin dies early in pregnancy, often as a result of chromosomal abnormalities. All remaining fetal tissue is absorbed by the brother, giving the impression that the deceased twin disappears from the air. It is estimated that this occurs in 21 to 30% of multi-fetal pregnancies.
The living twin is usually in perfect health. Thus, despite the bizarre conditions in which they were designed, these survivors have no super-power, no psychic personality, and no big green Hulk-outs. However, in case of the disappearance of fraternal twins, the survivors sometimes become chimeras, that is to say a person with two sets of DNA. It’s probably the closest we are going to come to a superpower.
TWINS THAT ARE SEPARATED AT BIRTH OFTEN LEAD BIZARRELY SIMILAR LIVES
The debate between nature and culture will continue for centuries, especially once Skynet takes over and humanity will try very hard to overturn responsibility. There is general agreement that genetic and environmental factors play a major role in human development. But as for the psychology of the twins, the box “nature” should perhaps be checked with a big Sharpie.
Twins who separate at birth, totally unaware of the other’s existence, often lead an oddly parallel adult life. What kind of shady project, HYDRA-esque would do something like separate twins? According to NPR, a secret study was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. Even more frightening, the results of this study are kept in a safe until 2066. Yeah …
Be that as it may, Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were reunited in their thirties. In addition to the obvious strangeness of meeting someone with the same face and voice, The Guardian describes his surprise to discover that they were both writers sharing analytical personalities, political opinions and eccentric tastes. Both suffered from eating disorders as teenagers, edited school newspapers and studied film at the university.
Then there are the “Jim Twins”, according to Live Science, two separate twins who were named Jim. When they met as adults, they had been married twice – their first wife’s name was Linda and the second wife’s name was Betty. Odd, right? Both grew up in Ohio, were chain smokers and drove similar cars.
TWINS START SOCIALIZING BEFORE THEY’RE EVEN BORN
The uterus looks a lot like your first apartment outside of school. It is cramped, messy and you spend too much time vacuuming strange drinks into an even more unknown tube. But this first apartment is all yours, and it’s brand new for you, so you dig it. The only thing that could make it even better is a cool and friendly roommate, and that’s exactly what twins have. Ask (almost) any twin and they will tell you: the twins are tight. Many have an indissoluble link. No kidding, the glue has nothing on most twins. Recent evidence shows that twins actually start to become best friends when they are still together in the womb.
That is true. According to Scientific American, twins have their social rhythm while they are still fetuses. At the 14th week of gestation, the twins start contacting their new boyfriend. At the 18th week, they touch their partner more often than the walls or themselves, and with more deliberation, patience and concentration. They also take special care when they touch the area of their twin’s eyes.
From the beginning of their development, twins already learn to bond, to be interested in them and to interact with their peers. According to a study published by the scientific journal Neuron, even if all present misanthropists could protest, humans are intrinsically social creatures, even at a purely genetic level. These twin fetuses my friend show how these social instincts are frozen.
THERE ARE ‘MIRROR TWINS’ WITH REVERSED FEATURES
The term “double mirror” contains enough scary possibilities to excite any horror fan, but the reality is far more innocent. While twin-mirrors do not have the squeaky sharp teeth, 3-inch claws or bright red eyes that Stephen King might conjure up, they have some rather strange differences from the identical twin everyday.
Basically, mirror twins are exactly alike, unlike their inverted features: a mirror image. They have 100% of the same genes, but these distinct aspects are reversed. According to the Washington Registry Twin Registry, although a person may be right-handed, his twin mirror could be as well. One could have a single birthmark on his left leg and the other would have the same birthmark on his right leg. Mirror twins may have an overbite on opposite sides. Despite this bizarre asymmetry, the twins are still monozygous (identical).
Scientific American points out that sometimes these mirror features become even more bizarre. For example, there have been cases where a person has cancerous tumors on his left lung, but his twin develops only tumors on his right lung. In any case, the whole shimmer of mirroring actually occurs in about 25% of identical twins, which is not as rare as it seems.
IT’S POSSIBLE FOR CONJOINED TWINS TO LITERALLY SHARE A MIND
Many twins swear they have an ESP, although experts like Nancy L. Segal are not convinced. Anyway, there is at least one group of Siamese twins who could argue very well. They are not only physically connected to the head: they also share their thoughts and feelings.
Two girls named Tatiana and Krista Hogan are Siamese twins whose skulls are fused, rare twins craniopages. The fact that they are alive is already miraculous, since most of the twins born this way require a surgical separation at risk to survive. However, what is really incredible about these two is that they seem to have something never seen in scientific history, according to the New York Times: a physical link between their two minds that allows them to live literally the sensations felt by the other twin.
Between the brain separated from Tatiana and Krista’s, there is a physical link that their neurosurgeon calls a “thalamic bridge”, which allows each girl to capture sensory information produced by the other girl. For example, if a girl swallowed a drool too quickly, she could freeze her brain. If one eats something, the other can taste it. They feel the pain of the other. It is thought that they can even perceive what the other sees in their eyes, with a kind of parallel vision.
Even though their condition is unique, CBC Radio reports that these two twins had a normal childhood in a happy and loving home.
FRATERNAL TWINS CAN HAVE TWO DIFFERENT FATHERS
It’s hard to say if this odd little thing would be more comfortable in a science fiction novel or a ball comedy, but that’s what it is: fraternal twins do not need the same father . Yes, it really happens. If timing, genetics and environmental factors work properly, the fraternal twins could each have a different father. Remember how a woman produces two eggs and how each egg is fertilized by a different sperm? Well, let’s say she has sex with two different men during the same fertile period, and both guys are successfully fertilizing their own eggs. You know what happens next.
According to BabyCenter, this phenomenon, which would probably make one of the romantic comedians starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, is called heteropaternal supercondensation. This happens quite often in dogs, as bitches usually produce several eggs and have multiple partners. Humans usually only ovulate one egg at a time and are generally less promising than our canine companions. But hey, it happens. As long as everyone agrees, right?
TWINS CREATE THEIR OWN LANGUAGES
Of course, Duolingo is a great way to learn Spanish. And of course, it’s cool that the new Star Trek has Klingon characters that speak in the current Klingonian language. But sorry, in terms of languages, twin babies make everyone beat. Long before the adult world weighs on these little elves with past participles and suspended modifiers, twins can create their own languages.
This phenomenon, which according to the National Center for Biotechnology, was reported in 40% of twins, is called cryptophasia. While these young twins always jump in their pajamas and listen to the adults talking to them in a low voice, they try to communicate – but unlike most babies, the twins have a partner, and the two will often put together language that no one includes. So yes, almost half of the twins spoke gibberish before being toddlers, but this gibberish could have meant something.
These autonomous languages tend to disappear once the twins have learned a “real” adult language, which is a shame because the cryptophasic languages would be a big challenge for Duolingo. But not always. Matthew and Michael Youlden are two adult twins who have become attached to the language of their childhood. By the age of seven, they began to actively develop it into a complete language with its own alphabet and grammatical rules. They call this Umeri language and, although it sounds pretty awesome, they have largely kept it secret from the outside world.
THE ‘TWIN’ GENE RUNS IN MOTHERS, NOT FATHERS
Some families are very lucky. It’s really not fair. The twins already enjoy the pleasures of secret languages, fetal socialization, the best friend of a lifetime … and then, besides, does not it seem that twins often have twins? It’s as if any twin you come across claims to come from a long line of twins. What is the problem? Have extraterrestrial visitors planted the twin gene in one of their ancestors, and since then has he grown up in their lineage? The jury is still on the extraterrestrials, but there is a twin gene. However, it only goes through women.
Hyperovulation – when a woman ovulates two eggs instead of one – seems to involve genetic factors, according to Scientific American. Most human women do not hyperovulate too often and fraternal twins are only created by hyperovulation. So if you are a woman and your mother or grandmother has fraternal twins, you have a decent chance to hatch your twins. Be ready.
According to years of research cited by Johns Hopkins University, the twin gene concerns ovulation and is transmitted only by the mother. So, if a twin is really anxious to give birth to his own twins, he will have to find a woman who carries the twin gene herself. Or just leave it to nature, because the identical seem to come out of nowhere sometimes.
THEY’RE MULTIPLYING!
Unsurprisingly, these overpowering natural clones are not waiting: they take over. As more and more twins pop up around the world, is their next goal other than world domination? Just imagine. Doors with two door handles, bunk beds everywhere, a rise in tandem bicycle sales. Clichés aside, it’s true: there are more twins today than ever before. In 2014, a CDC survey showed the twinning rate was a record, with more than 33 out of every 1,000 twins producing in the United States. Since 1980, the twinning rate has risen by 76%. You see, they take over!
What factors led to the great uprising of twins? First, contemporary women are waiting longer to have children. Women millennia have completed their studies before becoming mothers, and Dutch researchers have shown that women aged 30 and over are more likely to have twins, due to hormonal changes and higher risks of hyperovulation.
Another major factor? Science. Manic DIYs of white-coated geniuses have led to developments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), which have opened the pregnancy to millions of grateful couples who would otherwise have struggled. IVF involves the extraction of eggs, the combination of spermatozoa in the laboratory, and their reintroduction into the uterus. There you are, children! To ensure samples are collected, Newsweek explains how doctors will introduce more than one embryo. Multiple embryos circulating increase the baby’s chances of success. But guess what? More than one of these embryos could decide to stay … then boom, twins!
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