In every culture there are radically different standards that define beauty. For some its a neck elongated by brass rings feet bound up into crippling smallness pumped up biceps and six-pack abs cinched up, hour-glass waists

Yet across the world researchers have found there's one standard, one constant that universally defines beauty: symmetry.

When individuals from dozens of different countries and cultures were asked to identify the most beautiful faces, it was the most symmetrical faces that were consistently picked out. The closest match between the right and left side of those faces--cheek-bones the same width, eyes most identically shaped and centered, lips curved at precisely the same angle--all led to the conclusion that the face was beautiful. The exactness with which the two halv…