Michael Discovered A New Way To Make Twins

The Rest Is Science

Goalhanger

Science, Physics, Mathematics

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Is there a new way to make twins? If there is, Michael's might just have discovered it. And hint: it's going to hard work. From Hannah’s twin-like sister to the most famous cells in human history, in this episode Hannah and Michael continue to explore whether we truly own of ourselves, this time at a microscopic level. From our genome, to our cells and even our personalities, what happens in a future where cloning is the norm? Where Zygotes might be used to create mini-Michaels? And where reproduction as we know it now is...optional. ------------------- For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠ Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ. ------------------- Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠ ------------------- Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek Animator: Sam Benson Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe Producer: Simona Rata Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the rest of science. I'm Hannah Fry. And I'm Michael Stevens. Today, I want to tell you about something I've discovered. Go on. A new way to make twins.
0:10.9	Is it ethical? Oh, it's ethical. It's not easy. Okay. There's two ways to make twins. Yeah. And the first way is the normal way.
0:21.6	You and your partner just really hope that that zygote splits into two babies.
0:26.6	Genetically identical.
0:27.8	Genetically identical individuals.
0:30.0	The second way is for you and your partner to have about 70 trillion children.
0:35.2	Okay.
0:35.8	That sounds like quite a lot of work.
0:37.7	It's not that bad.
0:39.2	All it requires is birthing 70,000 children a second.
0:43.7	What for your entire fertile life?
0:46.5	Well, I mean, for your entire fertile life.
0:49.4	Not mine, my partners, luckily.
0:51.5	You're not going to get much else done.
0:56.0	No, no, but wouldn't it be cool?
0:58.4	I'll talk about how this works in a moment.
1:05.9	This episode is brought to you by Cancer Research UK.
1:07.3	Here's something strange.
1:15.7	Your DNA contains more ancient viral fragments than genes. The genes that build our cells make up only 2% of our DNA. And for years, that is what scientists focused on.
1:23.2	They treated the rest, the ancient viruses and stuff, as junk. But now we know that that hidden
1:28.8	majority, sometimes called the dark genome, influences how our biology works and how does
1:35.2	disease like cancer behave. It's a reminder that progress rarely comes as a single breakthrough.
	...

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