Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein lived very similar lives. They were both born in New York, edited their high school newspapers and studied film at university. And both were adopted in 1968.

It was only at the age of 35 that they discovered each other and just how similar they were: identical twins who had been separated as infants in a bizarre social experiment.

It came to light when Elyse, who had been living in Paris, had decided to seek her birth mother. She was told that the mother was not interested in meeting her, but was then informed that she had an identical twin, Paula.

After not knowing her sister for three decades, with help from social workers she was able to find her within days.

The two women met for the first time three years ago at a café for lunch and talked until the late evening.

“We had 35 years to catch up on,” said Paula. “How do you start asking somebody, ‘What have you been up to since we shared a womb together?’ Where do you start?”

On that first day Elyse did not reveal the secret she had discovered during her research. But soon afterwards she told Paula that they had been deliberately separated at birth and were the subjects of a unique study on nurture versus nature, a debate that has enthralled scientists for generations.

The real purpose of the experiment was hidden from their adoptive parents, who were vaguely told that the children were part of an ongoing study.

“They neglected to tell them the key element of the study, which is that it was about child development among twins raised in different homes,” Paula told America’s National Public Radio. [telegraph.co.uk]