Biological mimicry is when ones species evolves to look like another. Sometimes, one organism will additionally take on the behavior and mannerisms of the other. They end up looking so similar that it is difficult to tell them apart, even though they are totally unrelated.

Animals do this for many reasons. Often, it has to do with predation. Some prey animals take on the look of some other, more dangerous animal that their own predators avoid. Conversely, a predator may mimic an animal that its prey doesn’t fear.

10 Hornets And Hornet Moths

We all know hornets can deliver quite painful stings. Several species belonging to the Sesia genus, such as Sesia apiformis, have evolved to mimic hornets in look and behavior. These copycat moths are called hornet moths, for obvious reasons.

S. apiformis has the distinctive yellow and black markings of a hornet. It is also around the same size as a regular hornet and has a similar wingspan. The moth has also learned to take off in a haphazard manner, just as a hornet would, the moment it spots a threat.

There are a few differences between the hornet and hornet moth, though. The moth is yellower than a hornet and lacks a waist, even though hornets have waists in between their thoraxes and abdomens. The wings of the moth are also transparent. This last part only becomes discernible in flight, and most people and animals do not hang out long enough to find out, anyway.^[1]

9 Ladybirds And Ladybird Spiders

Spiders are so amazing they have a popular fictional superhero named after them. The ladybird (aka ladybug) is special, too. It does not have its own superhero, but it does have real spiders named after it. These spiders belong to the genus Paraplectana. They are a group of spiders that have evolved to look like like ladybirds.

The mimicry is necessary, considering that many predatory birds avoid ladybirds. This is because ladybirds contain toxic chemicals that emit a terrible odor when crushed and leave a nasty, lingering taste in the mouth of the bird. This had made many birds develop a strong distaste for the ladybird. Aside from spiders, a few other insects, like the ladybird-mimic fungus beetle, have also evolved to look like ladybirds.^[2]

8 Jumping Spiders And Metalmark Moths

The metalmark moth (Brenthia coronigera) does not mimic just any random insect or spider but its predator, the jumping spider. The moths are so good at mimicry that jumping spiders mistake them for other jumping spiders. Smaller jumping spiders even flee from the moths over fears that they could be eaten.

The metalmark moth doesn’t just resemble the jumping spider in looks. It also moves in a manner resembling jumping spiders instead of just fluttering around like most moths do. Male jumping spiders get so fooled that they become attracted to the moths and display courtship behavior by raising their two front legs toward the moth.

Researchers who have studied the effectiveness of this mimicry say the moth needs to have its wings in the right position for the ruse to be effective. The black dots on its wings resemble a jumping spider’s eyes, while the rest of it mimics the spider’s body. Several experiments indicate that the spider will recognize the moth as prey if it does not display its wings or if any part of it is concealed.^[3]

7 Ants And Spider Ants

Ant mimicry (also called myrmecomorphy) is found in quite a few spider species. In fact, about 300 species of spiders take on the appearance of one ant or another. The mimicry serves two purposes. One is to deceive the ants, and the other is to deceive its predators, which will usually avoid ants.

These copycat spiders have spots that resemble the compound eyes of ants. They also have reflective hairs that make their thorax and abdomens look like those of ants. Most even walk in zigzag manners as an ant would. To appear more convincing, they make periodic stops and move their two front legs close to their heads to imitate an ant’s antennae.

Spiders like the ground spider mimic ants to deceive other ants. The spider hunts and kills isolated ants before dragging the body off while pretending to be just another ant trying to help the dead ant. The crab spider does the same thing, except that it drags the ant with a web. This allows it an easy escape if its ruse is discovered.

Other spiders mimic ants to avoid getting eaten by ants, spiders, and birds that consider them prey. These spiders also behave like ants to confuse their predators. They even build their nests close to the ants they mimic. This works because ants regularly fight off larger predators despite their smaller size. These predators have learned to avoid the ants—along with spiders disguised as ants.^[4]

6 Rove Beetles And Army Ants

About 12 species of parasitic rove beetles are currently looking like one species of army ant or another. Most army ant colonies have one rove beetle per 5,000 army ants. The rove beetle does this to gain access into the ant colony, where it feeds on the ants’ larvae.

Their bodies have evolved to the point where they look so much like the real thing that even humans cannot tell them apart at a glance. Army ants cannot either, even when they touch the beetles, as they often do.

To be clear, most army ants are blind and actually recognize their colony mates through chemical and tactile cues. The beetles have this covered, too. They clean other ants just to get access to the chemicals the ants use for identification. This makes the beetles undetectable, even by scent. To appear more convincing, the rove beetle participates in every activity with the ants and even follows them on raids.

Scientists say the resemblance between both creatures is fascinating, considering that their last common ancestor was 105 million years ago. That is a really long time, even for evolution. Most creatures with similar characteristics diverged much more recently. In fact, 105 million years ago is when our distant evolutionary ancestors diverged from mice.^[5]

5 Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasses And False Cleanerfish

As you should have guessed from the name, cleaner fish strip other fish clean of harmful and parasitic organisms on their bodies. The relationship is considered mutually beneficial. The cleaner fish get food, while the fish that get cleaned are saved from harmful parasites.

The blue streak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus, left above) is one of the many cleaner fish around. However, the false cleanerfish (Aspidontus tractus, right above) has evolved to look like the blue streak cleaner wrasse. Both fish look and behave so similarly that they are hard to tell apart.

The false cleanerfish runs fake cleaner stations about a meter away from the blue streak cleaner wrasse’s real ones. Sometimes, it even has a couple of real cleaner wrasses around just to appear more convincing. When an unsuspecting fish comes in, the false cleanerfish pretends to be cleaning before biting off a chunk and darting away.^[6]

4 Pit Vipers And Hawk Moth Caterpillars

Hemeroplanes triptolemus is a hawk moth that lives in the forests of Central America. The caterpillar of the species is capable of mimicking pit vipers to send would-be predators fleeing. When threatened, the caterpillar faces the aggressor as a true pit viper would. Then it withdraws its legs and extends the front of its body in such a way that it puffs up to resemble the head of a pit viper.

To complete the mimicry, the caterpillar mimics viper-like curves, scales, and eyes. For lifelike effects, it also throws jabs like a real viper. The appearance is so convincing that it even fools humans. Birds and other caterpillars trying to eat this caterpillar don’t hang around long enough to wonder where the rest of the “viper’s” body went.^[7]

3 Common Wasps And Marmalade Hoverflies

The marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) is often confused with the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris, also called the common yellow-jacket) because of their similar body coloration. Both have black and yellow markings, which make them indistinguishable to their predators and even humans. They look so alike that quite a few people screamed and fled when marmalade hoverflies swarmed several British beaches in 2004.

The common wasp got the color first. The marmalade hoverfly is the copycat. Wasps are generally feared for their painful stings. In humans, those stings can cause anaphylactic shock, which can lead to death. The marmalade hoverfly is harmless but mimics the wasps for protection against its many predators, including birds.

There are differences between the common wasp and the marmalade hoverfly despite their extensive similarities. Wasps have four wings, while hoverflies have just two. Wasps also have waists in between their thoraxes and abdomens, while marmalade hoverflies have none. Hoverflies also tend to fly sideways, which wasps rarely do.^[8]

2 Flesh Flies And Fly-Mimicking Weevils

As you should have guessed, the aptly named fly-mimicking weevil (Timorus sarcophagoides) is weevil that looks like a fly, specificity flesh flies from the Sarcophagidae family. The weevils’ body coloration and markings are similar to the flies’. They also have two large reddish dots on their thorax that look like the eyes of a fly.

The fly-mimicking weevil executes the mimicry so well that it even moves and rubs its legs together as flesh flies do. The idea is to trick potential predators into believing they are flesh flies.

You see, flesh flies are very fast, and birds generally avoid chasing after them because they are difficult to catch. The fly-mimicking weevil is much slower, so the disguise is necessary to make the birds think they are not easy prey. As a result, potential predators just move on to invest their time on other, “slower” insects.

However, the ruse does not always work on entomologists, who will often want to inspect the weevil. The weevil quickly realizes the game is up and just retracts its legs and rolls over until it falls to the ground, pretending to be dead. A very clever insect we have here.^[9]

1 Nymphister Kronaueri Masquerades As Part Of An Army Ant

Some new creature always pops up whenever we think we’ve seen it all. What do we make of the so-called ant lovers (aka myrmecophiles), a group of organisms that just love to hang around ants? Scientists are not sure why they do, but they think it has a lot to do with the fact that ants are good at finding food.

Nymphister kronaueri is one of these ant lovers. The beetle attaches itself in between the thorax and abdomen of army ants without being noticed. The beetle gets a free ride, along with the free food it probably already receives from the ants. Scientists have also observed that the beetle prefers to attach itself to the bodies of medium-sized ants. They do not know why but think it has to do with N. kronaueri wanting to trick the ant into thinking it is actually a part of the ant’s abdomen.^[10]

You may have heard of spontaneous combustion, but the phenomenon of animals literally exploding is less well-known. Some creatures purposefully detonate as a suicidal defense mechanism to protect other members of their colony, while others explode after death with catastrophically messy results. There have even been occasions where humans have used hapless animals as bombs during warfare. Here’s our round-up of the most noteworthy cases of exploding animals (including humans) throughout history.

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10 Germany’s Bursting Toads

While exploding toads may sound like the work of science fiction, it’s a phenomenon that was first seen in Germany in 1968, although there have been recorded cases in Belgium, Denmark, and the USA. The most well-publicized incidence of dirigible amphibians happened in 2005 around lakes in the Altona district of Hamburg, Germany. Over 1,000 toads swelled up and burst, causing their internal organs to fly out. This led to the area being named as the ‘Pond of Death’ by the press.

Although scientists were at first perplexed as to why the toads’ natural defensive reflex to expand in the face of a predator appeared to have suddenly gone horribly wrong, an expert called Frank Mutschmann finally solved the riddle. It turned out that the finger of blame could be squarely pointed at the area’s crow population. Upon examining the corpses of recently-exploded toads, Mutschmann discovered that they all had a tiny round incision on their backs typical of those made by a crow’s beak. The brainy birds had figured out that the best part of a toad to eat was the liver, and they removed them through the toads’ backs to prevent ingesting the poison on the skin. When the toads realized they had been attacked, their natural reaction was to puff up defensively. As the liver is responsible for holding the toad’s internal organs in, this caused the lungs to expand uncontrollably, leading to their rupture and the inevitable messy explosion of the toad.^[1]

9 Self-sacrificing Ants

The aptly named Colobobsis explodens ants native to Borneo have a rather drastic way of dealing with predators. These small, reddish ants lack usual defense mechanisms such as stings but have a far more explosive weapon in their arsenal.

When Colobobsis explodens detect a threat, they give out a warning by showing the enemy their rumps. If this doesn’t work, the ants clamp down on the predator with their jaws and tighten their abdomens until they blow up, releasing a poisonous yellow fluid with an unusual, curry-like scent. While this method of defense is fatal for the individuals involved, their self-sacrifice protects the rest of the colony from being devoured.^[2]

8 Detonating Sperm Whale

When a whale dies, decomposition gases can build up inside the carcass at such high levels that it explodes. That’s exactly what happened in the city of Tainan, Taiwan, in 2004. The unfortunate creature had been washed up on a beach and passed away before rescuers arrived. It was decided that the whale should be transported to a research facility, and its colossal 50-tonne weight meant that it took workers 13 hours to load it onto a trailer, during which time it became bloated with gas.

The whale attracted a large amount of attention from bystanders as it passed through the city, who were all sprayed with blood when the whale detonated, causing its internal organs to explode into the street. Locals were forced to wear masks to block out the stench as the performed a mammoth clean-up operation. The whale was later declared to be the largest specimen ever found in Taiwan.^[3]

7 The Oregon Whale Explosion of 1970

The spontaneous explosion of a dead whale carcass isn’t as uncommon as you might think. However, on one memorable occasion, humans gave nature a helping hand. When a dead whale was beached in Florence, Oregon in 1970, officials had to decide how to dispose of it. Cue highway engineer Paul Thornton, who had the idea of using dynamite to explode the carcass.

Thornton had intended for the pieces to drift away harmlessly into the sea, but things didn’t quite work out that way. Despite a quarter-mile cordon around the area of the explosion, onlookers had to run away as massive pieces of the dead whale came flying towards them. A piece “the size of a coffee table” completely demolished a parked car according to Paul Linnman, a journalist covering the story.

Apart from being messy, Thornton’s method of clearing up a dead whale by exploding it was woefully ineffective. A large part of the whale remained in situ, which had to be buried. However, the Oregon Whale Explosion of 1970 went down in history and later became one of the most popular online videos of all time.^[4]

6 Obliterating Animal Carcasses with Explosives

If you thought that Oregon’s whale explosion was a one-off, you wouldn’t be entirely correct. Exploding animal carcasses as a means of disposal is actually reasonably common in the USA. In fact, The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service has its own guide on how to blast large animal carcasses such as horses, mules, and moose to oblivion, aptly named ‘Obliterating Animal Carcasses with Explosives’. It was written by Jim Tour and Mike Knodel, who has the rather unusual job title of ‘Region Blaster Examiner’.

The guide details how to place explosives in various locations under the carcass to achieve either ‘dispersal’ or ‘total animal obliteration’ depending on the end result you’re going for. It reminds readers to always consult a ‘qualified blaster’ before blowing up any large dead animals you may have lying around.^[5]

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5 Rat Bombs

During the Second World War, British secret agents hid explosives in all manner of innocuous-looking containers from bars of soap to bottles of wine. However, perhaps the most unusual explosive device ever invented was the rat bomb. Agents skinned the rodents and packed them with plastic explosives, planting them next to furnaces. The intention was that an unwitting German would throw the dead rat inside, leading to a devastating explosion.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as planned and the consignment of exploding rats was discovered by the German National Socialists before they could ever be used behind enemy lines. However, the discovery had an unintended consequence that placed the Allies at an advantage. The rat bombs caused significant concern amongst the German forces and prompted a lot of time to be wasted searching for rat bombs across the continent that didn’t actually exist.Top 10 Surprising Abilities And Facts About Rats” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>^[6]

4 Bat Bombs

Rats weren’t the only animals that the Allied forces considered using to bomb their enemies. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, a dentist from Pennsylvania called Lytle S. Adams came up with the novel idea of using bats to bomb Japanese cities after observing the creatures’ behavior while on vacation in New Mexico. He reasoned that bats could penetrate all areas of the country, starting fires and causing chaos without excessive loss of life.

Perhaps surprisingly, his plan was developed by the National Research Defense Committee, who gathered a team of experts to explore the idea further. Having decided to use Mexican free-tailed bats, they designed a tiny bomb for the creatures to carry. However, it turned out that bombing a city using bats was fraught with difficulty. For one thing, the bats had to be cooled and transported on ice to keep them in a state of hibernation. A special container also had to be designed to release the bats in mid-air. During a test run, some of the bats were let loose by accident, which led to an air hangar catching fire. In the end, the project was abandoned, although a total of $2 million was spent on developing the exploding bats.

As for Adams, his days as an inventor were not over. He went on to develop several other eccentric ideas including bombs hidden in seed packets and a vending machine dispensing fried chicken.10 Oddities That Interrupted Military Battles” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>^[7]

3 Explosive Termite Backpacks

In the rainforests of French Guiana lives a species of termites that defend their colony by blowing themselves up in the face of their enemies. The Neocapritermes taracua species carry a sack of poisonous blue fluids on their backs dubbed as ‘explosive backpacks’. These gradually fill with toxic crystals throughout the course of the animal’s life, which means that the oldest individuals have the largest backpacks and are therefore the most lethal.

While older termites aren’t so good at performing jobs for the colony such as foraging for food, they come into their own when under attack. When a predator threatens the colony, elderly termites explode their backpacks in their direction, showering them with toxic blue liquid. Their self-sacrifice protects the community while the younger, healthier members maintain the colony.^[8]

2 Cow Methane Explosion of Rasdorf

While we’ve seen a lot of animals that blow themselves up, a strange occurrence in Germany proves that gassy cows can cause whole buildings to blow up en masse. In 2014, a group of flatulent cows caused a cowshed in Rasdorf, Germany to explode. The 90 cows, each of which produces up to 500 liters of methane gas every single day, caused dangerously high levels to build up inside the building. This ignited because of a static electricity charge, causing an explosion and flames. The blast damaged the roof and injured one of the unfortunate bovines, who had to be treated for burns.

Scientists are trying to find ways to stop cows from belching out such high levels of methane. Livestock farming is thought to produce 14% of all greenhouse emissions caused by humans, and methane is one of the most harmful to the planet as traps around 25% more heat than carbon dioxide. The AgResearch institute in New Zealand is attempting to combat this problem by developing a vaccine against the microbes that live in cows’ guts and produce methane. If the experiment succeeds, it could be a useful weapon in the battle against climate change (and prevent any more cow-related barn explosions).^[9]

1 William the Conqueror

The story of William the Conqueror’s funeral is a farcical one that culminates in his unfortunate explosion. Accounts of how he died vary, with some stating that he became ill and collapsed with exhaustion during battle and others saying that his large stomach was forced into his saddle pommel causing a terrible wound.

William’s body was laid out in state, but the room was raided, and his nude corpse was left on the floor. After being hastily (and, if the accounts are to be believed, sloppily) embalmed, William was transported to Caen in France. Almost as soon as he arrived, the town caught fire. When the body finally made it to the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, a man announced that William had stolen the land from his family and objected to him being buried there. The man was offered compensation, and the church eulogies began. As the swollen body was pushed into the coffin, the abdomen burst open, filling the abbey with such a foul smell that the rest of the funeral was completed as hastily as possible. It’s unclear whether this sorry tale is actually true, especially as William was unpopular with certain religious factions who would have enjoyed hearing of his grisly end.

William isn’t the only English monarch rumored to have exploded at his own funeral. Some accounts of the funeral of the Tudor king Henry VIII state that his body exploded inside the coffin and that dogs licked up some of the fluids. However, this could be a tale cooked up to paint the dead king in a poor light, as it mirrors the biblical story of wicked King Ahab, whose blood was licked up by dogs after his death.^[10]

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The world has always had a curiosity of the unique bond that is linked with of twins. The collection of stories below are 10 interesting accounts from recent years associated with twin births. This list is not meant to be a historical look at twins, but rather some unusual recent stories – therefore it excludes people like the first siamese twins.

Linda and Terry Jamison are twins from the United States who claim to have predicted the September 11th attacks two years ahead of time. On November 2, 1999, they claimed that through an automatic writing process there would be a terrorist attack on the federal government and the World Trade Center in 2001. The actual quote is, “we are seeing various terrorist attacks on federal government and also the New York Trade Center, the World Trade Center”. The twins did not specify the time or indicate who would be responsible. The Jamison twins also predicted that John F. Kennedy Jr. would die by plane crash. However it has been pointed out that the Jamison twins are frequently incorrect. In December 2003, they incorrectly predicted that Saddam Hussein would be killed by U.S troops and that Pope John Paul II would die in June 2004.

70 year old Omkari Panwar and her husband 77 from India already have two adult daughters, and five grandchildren. Male children are especially important among India’s Hindus. Only a male heir can carry out funeral rites and female infanticide remains a chronic problem, largely because the dowry system, though banned, is commonly practiced. Their male child will also be able to work the families land. To pay for the IVF treatment vital to producing a male heir to the family’s smallholdings, they sold their buffalos, mortgaged their land, spent their life savings and took out a credit card loan. Mrs. Panwar gave birth to twins a boy and girl by emergency Caesarean section The twins were born a month premature and weighed 2lb each but are healthy according to doctors.

Alicia and Jasmin were born to a mother of Jamaican-English descent and a father of German descent. Alicia’s eyes are brown and her hair is dark. Jasmin’s eyes are blue and her hair is white. Genetic expert’s explanation for this very unusual occurrence is the mother has a mixture of genes that determines skin color. When egg cells are formed in the mother, a random selection of genes will be allocated to each egg. The set of chromosomes in each egg cell is unique. In most cases a mixed-race woman’s eggs will be a mixture of genes for both black and white skin. In very rare cases the eggs may contain genes for predominantly one skin color. In this case, the mother released two such eggs – one with predominantly dark pigmentation genes and one with predominantly fair genes.

Even Though the idea of a special connection between identical twins is often myth and legend little research has been done in this field. The book ‘Twin Telepathy” claims an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that there is indeed a special connection. One of the experiments involved 8-year-old Richard Powles who was put in a soundproof room in front of a bucket filled with ice-cold water. On command, Richard plunged his arm into the ice cold water, giving a gasp as he did so. In another room well out of sight or earshot, his identical twin brother Damien was wired up to a polygraph. A polygraph expert monitored his respiration, abdominal muscles, pulse and galvanic skin response (sweat on the hands). All Damien had to do was sit quietly and “tune in” to his brother’s feelings. At the exact moment of Richard’s sharp intake of breath caused by the freezing water, there was a sudden blip on the line monitoring Damien’s respiration rate. In another experiment, Richard was asked to open a cardboard box; in it was a huge rubber snake that jumped out at him. This, too, was instantly picked up by his twin as the pulse line on the chart clearly indicated. The book also concludes there are three especially telepathy-prone groups – mothers and newborn babies, dogs and their owners, and identical twins. Of these, it is the twins who pick up the signal at full strength most often, provided that they are in the right states of mind. The image above is a stock photo as no pictures could be found of Richard and Damien.

Tamara and Adriana were born in Guadalajara Mexico and were separated at birth and raised by different adoptive parents. Tamara was adopted by a Jewish couple who lived close to Central park in Manhattan. Adriana was adopted by a Roman Catholic family and grew up near Long Island just 20 miles away from where Tamara lived. Neither knew she had a twin sister. Tamara’s adoptive mother also did not know but Adriana’s adoptive mother knew but kept her twin a secret from her daughter. When the twins were 20 years old they were constantly getting confused by the other sister’s friends. Eventually mutual friends put two and two together and arranged for them to meet. Despite different upbringings, Tamara and Adriana discovered they had very lead similar lives. The twins’ adoptive fathers both died of cancer, Adriana plays the clarinet and Tamara plays the sax and they both love listening to R&B and hip hop. They also both wanted to be vets when they grew up. The reunited twins and their widowed moms have now formed a close bond.

June and Jennifer grew up in Britain. The twin sisters were inseparable, and had speech impediments which made it very hard for them to mix in with other children. The Gibbons also were the only black children in their school, and faced racism. Their language eventually became unintelligible to outsiders and spoke to no one except each other and their little sister. They would complete each other’s sentences and could communicate with no more than facial expressions. In their early teens they were given two diaries as Christmas gifts. This inspired them to send away for a mail order course in creative writing, and each wrote several novels that were published. It is theorized that because they were so desperate for recognition and fame and publicity for their books, the girls committed a number of petty crimes including arson. June & Jennifer were committed to a mental health hospital where they remained for 14 years. Because of the medications given to them in the hospital they lost most of their interest in creative writing. The girls apparently had an agreement that if one died, the other must begin to speak and live a normal life. During their stay in the hospital, they began to believe that it was necessary for one twin to die. Jennifer eventually agreed to be the sacrifice. Within hours after their release at the age of 30 Jennifer died of sudden inflammation of the heart. To this day, Jennifer’s death remains a mystery. After loosing her twin, June was able to speak with other people and contemplates resuming to her writing career.

Catalin and Valentin from Romania are twins with different years of birth. Catalin was born in December (2 months premature). The doctors were able to wait and deliver her second son Valentin two months later in February. Romanian doctors attributed the time lag in the births to a rare congenital condition that gave the twins mother two uteruses due to a congenital malformation that occurred when she was herself an embryo in her mother’s womb. Approximately one in every 50,000 women has a double uterus but the hospital believes this was the first case where a woman had become pregnant at the same time in both wombs and given birth nearly two months apart. The two brothers were both healthy when they were released from the hospital on the same day.

Wilma and Willem Stuart, a Dutch couple had been unsuccessfully trying to conceive for years and decided to try IVF. They soon learned they would be parents of twins. When the two boys were born, Koen had blue eyes, dark hair and pink skin, Tuen had dark eyes dark hair and brown skin. A DNA test revealed that Koen was the Stuarts child but Tuen was not Willem’s. The report of the investigation has not been made public, but speculation is that a piece of lab equipment called a pipette, like a large eyedropper, had been used twice, causing another man’s sperm to be mixed with Willem’s. The hospital called it a “deeply regrettable mistake”. The Stuarts remembered there was a black couple in the waiting room the same day during the IVF process. The hospital located the man and confirmed he was Tuen’s biological father. Although he was under no obligation to meet his son he never knew he had, he did when Koen was 18 months old. The biological father only looked at him from a distance and didn’t try to claim him and was comfortable that the Stuarts loved the child, and let them continue raising him.

Many know and have followed the story of the Hensel twins. They are now 18 and recently graduated from high school. Only four known sets of conjoined twins who share an undivided torso and two legs have ever survived into adulthood. By coordinating their efforts, they have been able to enjoy many hobbies and sports including volleyball, kickball, swimming, basketball, and cycling. Two years ago the girls passed their driver test and had to pass the test twice because each girl received a driver’s license. They also play the piano and are avid computer users. Abigail and Brittany expect to date, get married and have children. They hope that by providing some information about themselves they will be able to lead fairly typical lives.

Elyse and Paula were born to a woman with schizophrenia and were put up for adoption. Child psychologist Dr Viola Bernard, a consultant to the adoption agency believed twins should be separated to improve their psychological development so Elyse and Paula were sent to different families. Elyse knew that they had been adopted but neither one knew they were twins. When Elyse turned 33 she decided to contact the New York State Adoption Information Registry to look for her birth mother. It was then that she also discovered she had a twin. About six months later the twins were reunited. What makes this story even more incredible is it was also discovered that Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein were part of a secret nature versus nurture study by Dr Neubauer and his colleague Dr Viola Bernard. Neubauer was a noted child psychiatrist and studied five sets of twins and one set of triplets who were all deliberately separated at birth. The adoptive families would travel separately to the center once a month for 12 years for IQ tests and speech analysis. Researchers would also visit their homes and film the children playing. The adoptive parents were told they were part of a child development study but were kept in the dark about the twin/ triplet aspect. The set of triplets and two other sets of twins in the study have also been reunited, but it is not known if the remaining two sets of twins have. The controversial study has not been published, but will be in 2066, when most of the participants will likely be dead.

It is a great achievment for any man to perform extraordinary acts – but it is even more so when this is done despite a terrible disability. This list looks at 10 people who have made a major mark on society through their actions or through succeeding against all odds.

Disability: Amputee

Sudha Chandran was born to family in Chennai, South India. She completed her Masters in Economics from Mumbai. On one of her return trips from Mumbai to Chennai she met with an accident resulting in the amputation of her right leg. She was given an artificial leg and despite this terrible disability, she became one of the most accomplished and acclaimed dancers of the Indian Subcontinent. She has received and still receives invitations to perform all over the world. She has been honored with numerous awards and has performed all over the world. She appears often on Hindi television and in films.

Disability: Blind

At the age of nine, Runyan developed Stargardt’s Disease, which is a form of macular degeneration that left her legally blind. Marla Runyan is a three time national champion in the women’s 5000 meters. She won four gold medals in the 1992 summer Paralympics. In the 1996 Paralympics she won silver in the shot put and gold in the Pentathlon. In 2000 she became the first legally blind paralympian to compete in the Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. She holds various American records such as 20,000 Road (2003), All-female Marathon (2002), 500m (2001) , Heptathlon (1996). In 2001, she co-wrote and published her autobiography ‘No Finish Line: My Life As I See It’

Disability: Mental Illness

Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch Painter and is regarded as one of the greatest painters the world has ever seen. His paintings have immensely contributed to the foundations of modern art. In his 10 year painting career he produced 900 painting and 1100 drawings. Some of his paintings today are the most expensive: Irises was sold for $53.9 Million and Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for $82.5 Million. Vincent Van Gogh suffered depression, and in 1889 was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. His depression worsened over time and on July 27, 1890 at the age of 37 Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He died two days later. His last words were “the sadness will last forever”.

Disability: Deaf

Beethoven is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in history. He gave his first public performance as a pianist when he was only 8 years old. He studied in Vienna under the guidance of Mozart. By his mid-twenties he had earned a name for himself as a great pianist known for unpredictable and brilliant improvisations. In the year 1796 Beethoven began losing his hearing. In spite of his illness he immersed himself in his work and created some of the greatest works of music. Beethoven’s finest works are also the finest works of their kind in music history: the 9th Symphony, the 5th Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Late Quartets, and his Missa Solemnis. And he achieved all this despite being completely deaf for the last 25 years or so of his life.

Disability: Polio

Frida Kahlo was a renowned Mexican painter who created striking paintings, most of them being self-portraits reflecting her pain and sorrow. She painted using vibrant colors that were influenced by the cultures of Mexico. She was the first Mexican artist of 20th century whose work was purchased by an international museum. Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long, colorful skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development. Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time.

Disability: Cerebral Palsy

Christy Brown was an Irish author, painter and poet who had severe cerebral palsy. Born in Crumlin, Dublin to parents Bridget and Paddy, he was one of 13 surviving children (out of 22 born) in a Catholic family. He was disabled by cerebral palsy and was incapable for years of deliberate movement or speech. Doctors considered him to be intellectually disabled as well. However, his mother continued to speak to him, work with him, and try to teach him. One day, he famously snatched a piece of chalk from his sister with his left foot to make a mark on a slate.
At about five years old, only his left foot responded to his will. Using his foot he was able to communicate for the first time. He is most famous for his autobiography My Left Foot, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name. The Irish Times reviewer Bernard Share said the book was “…the most important Irish novel since Ulysses”. Like Joyce, Brown employed the stream-of-consciousness technique and captured the Dublin culture in his use of humor, language and unique character description.

Disability: Schizophrenia

John Forbes Nash is an Noble laureate American mathematician whose work in game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations are considered ground breaking. At a young age he was interested in scientific experiments which he carried out in his room. He studied Chemical engineering, chemistry and mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University. Later he was awarded a Fellowship at Princeton. In 1959 John Nash started showing severe signs of paranoia and started behaving erratically. He believed that there was an organization chasing him. In the same year he was admitted involuntarily to the hospital where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After treatment he was again admitted to the hospital this time voluntarily for 9 years were he given shock therapy. After returning from the hospital in 1970 he gradually started recovering. His work was becoming more successful and resulted in various awards and recognition. Prominent among them are John von Neumann Theory Prize in the year 1978 and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in the year 1994. An Academy Award winning film named ‘A beautiful Mind’ starring Russell Crowe was made which was loosely based on his biography.

Disability: Locked-in Syndrome

Jean-Do was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. In 1995 he suffered a massive heart attack causing him to go into a coma for 20 days. After coming out of the coma he found himself with a very rare neurological disorder called Locked-in syndrome, in which the mental state is perfectly normal and stable but the body is paralyzed from Head to Toe. In the case of Jean-Do he was able to move only his left eyelid. Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey it one letter at a time. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby’s interlocutor, Claude Mendibil, read from a special alphabet which consisted of the letters ordered in accordance with their frequency in the French language. The book was published in France on 7 March 1997. Bauby died just two days after the publication of his book.

Disability: Motor Neuron disease or a variant of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

Stephen William Hawking is a British theoretical physicist, whose world-renowned scientific career spans over 40 years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by motor neuron disease, likely a variant of the disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS). Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at Cambridge; he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact. The diagnosis of motor neuron disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and as of 2009 was almost completely paralyzed.

Disability: Blind and Deaf

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become known worldwide through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Sullivan taught Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with d-o-l-l for the doll that she had brought her as a present. A prolific author, Keller was well traveled and was outspoken in her opposition to war. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, workers’ rights, and socialism, as well as many other progressive causes. In 1920, she helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Keller and Sullivan traveled to over 39 countries, making several trips to Japan and becoming a favorite of the Japanese people. Keller met every US President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many famous figures, including Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin, and Mark Twain.