Twins

Synopsis

EPISODE 6 Tue 15 Mar

What does the latest research about twins tell us about ourselves?

Watch on Demand

Meet The Guests

Alex and Doug Dunn

“We got exactly the same ATAR at the end of year 12, the same mark … 99.5” 

Associate Professor Jeff Craig

Associate Professor

“Twins are absolutely essential to understand the health and wellbeing of the rest of us.”

Anna and Lucy Decinque

“We basically share everything, from a job, a car, a Facebook account, a bed, a bedroom ... even a boyfriend.”

Phillip and Douglas Griffiths

“The only real difference I can say is that I'm gay and Doug's straight. We had to share I think. The men were missing out.”

Dr Dean Hamer

Academic

“If a gay guy has an identical twin or a lesbian has an identical twin, that identical twin has about a 50 percent chance of being gay or lesbian. Which is much higher than in the general population and tells you genes are important. But of course, it’s not 100 percent”

Brittany Watt and Stephanie Knowles

“She was being refed against her will, she was being destroyed from the inside while being bedridden against her will.  It was just the ultimate torture to watch [when] you love this person.” 

Tracey Wade

Professor

“There's quite a large degree of overlap in the genetics between major depression and anorexia nervosa.” 

Michael Cameron

“As unhealthy and as much as being a twin frustrated me, make no mistake, losing that person is 100 times worse.”

Dr Nancy Segal

Academic

“Reared apart twins are a wonderful experiment that occurs naturally.  The great thing about them is that we can see how similar identical twins are when they're reared apart. We can see how much their genes underlie those behaviours.”

Marlene Crockett and Angela Ralph

“Our radiation treatment was at the same time.  At the same hospital … Marlene would go in the morning, I would go in my lunch break. It was always fascinating that I was there just after Marlene. We went through that together.”

John Hopper

Professor, Head of Australian Twin Registry

“Generally for most conditions, most diseases, if one twin has the disease that increases the likelihood that the other twin will have it.”

Brenton and Craig Gurney

Brenton: "The scan showed that I was all clear." | Jenny: "And Craig, were you getting headaches?" | Craig: "No, I was perfectly fine." | Jenny: " What did your scan show?" | Craig: "It wasn't a good result." 

Paulo Ferreira

Associate Professor

"These guys are so important for our research because if you come across twins that are different for something, it's looking differently at the same situation.  So it's not similarities but difference.”