I am dumb, I am aware. If twins have the same DNA, are they the same person from a biological standpoint?

  • cryshlee@lemm.eeOP
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    1 year ago

    Thank you for answering! I think what I was getting at with my question was more asking if at birth (or at some point in conception) on a molecular level, are twins identical clones of each other, with identical structures in their cells. Obviously as they grow they diverge, but are they from identical source material?

    I don’t know why my brain decided to have this existential confusion today, so I apologize for my ignorance

    • fubo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      DNA spells out how your cells work. But it doesn’t control what environment you interact with. What you learn depends on your environment, not your DNA: for example, if twin babies are separated at birth and one grows up with English-speakers and the other grows up with Polish-speakers, one would be fluent in English and the other in Polish. They’re clearly not “the same person” even if they’re running the same cellular source code.

      Put another way: If you and I are running the same browser on the same OS, that doesn’t mean I know all your passwords.