All mysteries
Mystery #1Tier 1genes / heredity

Why do you look like your parents?

Look at an old family photo and something a little spooky stares back: you might have your dad's exact nose, or your grandmother's smile turning up at one corner. Nobody painted those features onto you on purpose. Yet here they are, copied across generations like a message passed down a long line of people who lived and died before you were born. How does a face travel through time like that?

Three generations of one family, sharing features passed down through their genes.
Photo: Bill Branson (National Cancer Institute) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What gets passed from parents to children that decides how you look?

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