The New York TimesThe New York Times

Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them

By Kate Golembiewski

23 Aug 2022 · 3 min read

Editor's Note

The NYT reports on how a Canadian artist’s photography project involving people who look alike prompted an intriguing scientific discovery.

Charlie Chasen and Michael Malone met in Atlanta in 1997, when Malone served as a guest singer in Chasen’s band. They quickly became friends, but they did not notice what other people around them did: The two men could pass for twins.

Malone and Chasen are doppelgängers. They look strikingly similar, but they are not related. Their immediate ancestors are not even from the same parts of the world; Chasen’s forebears hailed from Lithuania and Scotland, while Malone’s parents are from the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

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