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Brazilian Twin Mystery the Result of Nazi Experiment?

Posted by samzenpus on from the boys-from-brazil dept.

The small Brazilian town of Candido Godol is noteworthy for its large German population and remarkable for its twin birth rate. The town has approximately 80 families and 44 sets of twins, a rate that is 1000% higher than normal. Many theories have sprung up over the years to account for the anomaly. National Geographic explores one of the latest and perhaps the most disturbing, the possibility that the twins are a result of an experiment conducted by Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele.

14 comments

  1. How many is a brazilian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is a brazilian twin like two brazilian?

    1. Re:How many is a brazilian? by fifedrum · · Score: 1

      it's a haircut, or lack-thereof. joking aside this is fascinating. The twinning rate for normal pregnancies (non injected or extra-hormone pumped ones) is pretty low, what 2%? and there's few things that will influence this. they could be chugging hormones.

    2. Re:How many is a brazilian? by jayme0227 · · Score: 1

      My first thought was that this may just be at the extremely long end of the tail, but then I looked into a little more and it seems that this are has a very large degree of genetic inbreeding.

      --
      But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
    3. Re:How many is a brazilian? by deprecated · · Score: 1

      'genetic inbreeding' Is there any other kind?

    4. Re:How many is a brazilian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's also the infectious kind that you can pick up from living in a trailer park for too long.

    5. Re:How many is a brazilian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      recreational?

  2. Typo by Cantus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The town's name is Cândido Godói (or Candido Godoi in ASCII). Please fix.

  3. Founder effect, anybody? by TheClockworkSoul · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As it turns out, the town was founded by only 8 families, and only minimally intermarried with anybody from outside. Hmm... for some reason, the term "founder effect" comes to mind.

    1. Re:Founder effect, anybody? by TheClockworkSoul · · Score: 1

      Allow me to clarify...

    2. Re:Founder effect, anybody? by mayko · · Score: 1

      Sounds like a reasonable and unsensational explanation... which is preciously why national geographic chose a more shocking reason. It looks like they are bringing themselves down to the level of the national enquirer

    3. Re:Founder effect, anybody? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except I think they ended up reaching that conclusion as well if I remember correctly -- I dozed off during the broadcast. But yeah, the title is fail.

  4. only 1000%? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    That's a fancy book-learned way of saying 10 times as many as normal.

    Which seems to fit nicely in a tail of a normal distribution for a very large set of numbers.

    A mysterious nazi mad scientist with mid-21st century medical science technology seems unnecessary.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:only 1000%? by DavMac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, no, it's 11 times as many as normal.

      "100% higher than normal" = 2 times as many as normal.

      "1000% higher than normal" = 11 times as many as normal.

  5. it could be environmental by Tisha_AH · · Score: 1

    There can be other things that can cause multiple offspring in a pregnancy. Subtle hormonal changes (or drastic changes like what happens with fertility treatments) can cause multiple ova (eggs) per term.

    It would be interesting to see if there is a statistical difference in the age of onset of menopause or other reproductive changes.

    --
    Tisha Hayes