「世界上的另一個你」可能比你想像的更相像！Your Doppelgänger Probably Shares DNA with You

Doppelgängers are people who look strikingly similar but are not related. In a study published recently, the researchers recruited pairs of look-alikes and then compared their DNA to see if it was as similar as their faces. They found that the pairs who were “true” look-alikes had more genes in common.

While the doppelgängers’ genomes were similar, their epigenomes, which is the influence that their life experiences have on which of their genes are switched on or off, are very different. This tells us that similar appearances have more to do with their DNA than with the environments they grew up in.

友善讓你懂 │ 解說：

所謂「分身」是看起來非常相似，但沒有血緣關係的人。在最近發表的一項研究中，研究人員招募了幾對長相相似的人，並比較他們的DNA，看看他們的DNA是否也相似。研究發現，長相相似的分身們，的確有更多的共同基因。

不過，雖然分身們的基因組相似，但他們的「表觀基因組」，也就是他們的生活經歷對其基因開啟或關閉的影響，卻大不相同。這告訴我們，擁有相似外表與分身們的DNA有關，而比較不是與他們成長的環境有關。

輕鬆帶著走 │ 學習：

Doppelgängers 本文意思是分身，來自德文。在許多文學中，Doppelgängers像是一個幽靈的存在，象徵壞運氣。不過在當代俚語中，就是泛指長相極為相似的人，有另一種說法是twin stranger。例句：

• At the mall today, I saw someone who could be your doppelgänger. 今天在商場我看到一個可能是你的分身的人

本篇其他相關單字，介紹如下：

• strikingly (adv.) 驚人的
• related (adj.) 有關的、有血緣關係的
• recruit (v.) 招募
• compare (v.) 比較
• appearance (n.) 長相