They Smell Like Twins

jerry submitted, created time 4 months 4 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

How much you smell depends on how often you bathe, but precisely how you smell depends on your genes, a new study suggests. The body odors of identical twins are significantly more similar than the scents of unrelated people, researchers in Switzerland have found. The results could pave the way for new tools to diagnose disease or identify people based on scent.

Body odor emanates from a chemical reaction between bacteria on the skin and sweat, a secretion that itself is odorless

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Size of a woman's uterus predicts whether she is at risk of having very premature twins after IVF

kavin submitted, created time 5 months 3 weeks (www.news-medical.net)

Using ultrasound to measure the height of a woman's uterus is a good way to predict whether or not she is at risk of having babies born prematurely if she becomes pregnant with twins after IVF, according to new research presented at the 24th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona.

Dr

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Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical

A drive to lower the incidence of multiple births in fertility treatments

Darkfrog submitted, created time 10 months 2 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

Doctors employing in vitro fertilization tend to implant several healthy embryos in the hopes that at least one will end up as a full-term healthy baby. However, this technique often leads to multiple births. Women carrying three or more children have a dramatically increased risk of health problems, premature birth and miscarriage, to the point where doctors often recommend "reducing," or selectively aborting one of the fetuses once it becomes apparent that triplets or more are on the way

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Twins, one with leukemia, illustrate cancer stem cell hypothesis

Darkfrog submitted, created time 11 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Cancer stem cell hypothesis is the idea that some cancers, including leukemia, are caused by a small number of cancer stem cells. Even if the majority of the tumor is removed of zapped with chemo, the cancer will recur unless the cancer stem cells are dispatched.

The twin girls in this study are fraternal, not identical, and one of them has leukemia and the other does not. However, a group of cells in the healthy girl, Isabella, seemed to match the ill girl, Olivia, implying that they were transferred to her while the two of them were developing. Some of these cells were removed

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When only mum or dad matters

Time-lapse recordings reveal why IVF embryos are more likely to develop into twins

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.eurekalert.org)

Evidence from time-lapse recordings of the formation of early embryos in the laboratory has revealed why embryos created via IVF and undergoing extended culture are more likely to develop into twins than those created via natural conception. The research presented at annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Monday, July 2, has shown that the culture in which the IVF embryos are formed is possibly responsible for the embryos dividing into twins.

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Conjoined Twins Arrive for Surgery

amanda submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (hosted.ap.org)

"Two 3-year-old girls joined at the head arrived Monday in a private jet from Dallas, a prelude to weeks of medical tests and possibly months of surgical procedures.

Anastasia and Tatiana Dogaru, who were born in Italy but are of Romanian descent, were brought to the United States with their parents at 9 months to be evaluated for separation surgery.
"

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Semi-identical twins discovered

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.nature.com)

A set of twins, now toddlers, has been shown to be part identical and part fraternal. A single egg from their mother was fertilized by two sperm from their dad. Both children are chimeras but share identical maternal DNA.

I have to wonder... Isn't double fertilization a sign of a weak membrane in the ovum? The article doesn't mention the woman's age. Does this tend to happen more with older women?

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