Identity Facts

Jack Nicholson's mother posed as his sister. His grandmother posed as his mother. Both died without telling him. A journalist did.

You are literally not the same person you were a decade ago—physically. Your skeleton is replaced every 10 years, your liver every 5 months, your skin every 2-4 weeks. The atoms that made you as a child are now scattered across the planet.

Humans share about 25% of their protein-coding genes with bananas—the ancient "housekeeping" genes essential for all cellular life. You share 85% with mice, 96% with chimps, and surprisingly much with slugs. The genetic code of life is so conserved that we are essentially variations on a 4-billion-year-old theme.