Rolling the genetic dice.

I saw something today that literally caused me to stop almost gawp like an idiot.

As I wandered into the World Market today I saw a family strolling past, two parents with three children happily chattering away.

The two youngest appeared to be identical twins... both with Progeria Syndrome. It wasn't the appearance of the poor lads, it was my brain reeling with the odds of them both occurring. (My brain said it was 1 in 12 million... About.com says 1 in 8 million with odds of identical twins being 1 in 285.) That means if I remember how to calculate probability... the odds of it occurring are 1 in 2.3 billion. So there is at best 2 other cases of it in the entire world...

I managed to get control, before the dad happened to look over and see me walking into the store. He glanced at his boys glanced at me and gave a sad smile. I returned it. It hurt, and I wish them the best.