image source, Getty Images
German footballer Mesut Ozil and Ferrari team founder Enzo Ferrari
Agnes was traveling on a train when a man approached her and started talking about things Agnes didn’t know.
It didn’t take Agnes long to realize that we weren’t who the man thought we were.
When he clarified that, the man said he knew someone who looked like Agnes. Agnes first met the lookalike Ester through Facebook. Later, the two met in person.
“Not only did we look the same, but our characteristics were similar,” says Ester.
It was strange and strange to Esther to see a part of herself in another.
“Agnes and I were similar in character and passion and were special. We had the same taste in music, clothes and tattoos,” says Esther.
Esther is 32 years old and Agnes is 28 years old. They both posed for a photo by Canadian photographer Francois Brunel. He was the one who shared their story with the BBC Mundo service.
François Brunel recalled that when he saw them, he was delighted to see that they looked alike.
He has spent years visualizing seemingly unrelated people from different parts of the world.
This picture of Agnes and Esther below was taken by him in 2015.
image source, FRANCOIS BRUNELLE
Agnes and Esther
Agnes and Esther were among the hundreds who took part in Brunelle’s ‘I’m not a look-alike’ project.
You probably already know this because there are hundreds of articles on the internet about ordinary people looking like celebrities.
A look comparison between Italian Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the Ferrari team, and Mesut Ozil, a Turkish-born German footballer, has become popular in recent years.
When Brunel began his project, he had no idea that it would become a precursor to scientific research.
Brunel was contacted by a team of experts at the Joseph Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, who were trying to understand the physical similarities between non-family members.
Its director, Manel Esteller, professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona’s Department of Medicine, led the study. He told the BBC Mundo service about some interesting findings.
What study?
The results of this research, which began in 2016, were published last August in the journal Cell Reports.
In the article titled ‘Look-alike humans identified by facial recognition algorithms show genetic similarities’, its author stated that the research aimed to identify unrelated individuals with similar facial features.
When the researchers contacted Brunel, 32 volunteer couples who had participated in his program participated in the study.
Their photographs were analyzed using three state-of-the-art facial recognition software.
image source, FRANCOIS BRUNELLE
“These are ways to find out how similar one face is compared to another,” Esteller said.
For example, concordance rates ranged from 90 to 100 percent when this method was applied to twins.
A study conducted to determine facial similarity in unrelated individuals found a high similarity rate.
At least two pieces of software say 75 percent of pairs are similar, the company said in a statement.
Esteller says this method is closest to humans’ ability to recognize twins.
Three software tests revealed that the 16 couples who participated in the study had very similar identities.
Study results
The researchers analyzed the participants’ biological samples. Esteller says it was a bit difficult to get because they were all in different countries.
DNA samples were therefore collected and analyzed from the saliva.
“We analyzed biological samples, the genome, the epigenome, the microbiome,” says Esteller.
image source, Getty Images
Genetics bound them together. While epigenetics and the microbiome distanced them.
“The main finding of this study was that they had identical genetic and DNA sequences, even though there was no relationship between them. “Even though the researchers looked at the family history of these volunteers going back a few centuries, there were no common relatives between them,” he says.
Experts say that specific DNA sequences play an important role in creating the characteristic features of our face.
Having two people so similar is like buying the lottery. It is very difficult for you to win the prize, but sudden luck may come.
“Even though two people are unrelated, there are genetic variations that can end up giving them the same shape,” says Esteller.
That is, they share some properties of DNA.
“Imagine that two unrelated people have a gene for thickening their eyebrows, a gene for thickening their lips, and genes for some specific trait. When all of this comes together, their face looks the same,” says Esteller.
Other similarities beyond physique
image source, Getty Images
As Sarah Kuta points out in Smithsonian Magazine, the study is a breakthrough in genetics. Volunteers were given and asked to answer a questionnaire containing more than 60 questions about their habits.
“The study was done to see if they were similar and in some cases similarities were revealed,” the professor said, adding that other physical features like weight, age, height were also analysed.
In a study of 16 very similar couples, “many had similar weights and their lifestyle analysis also showed similarities,” he says.
“Smoking behavior and educational level were also similar in the pairs, suggesting that shared genetic variation is not only related to physical appearance, but may also influence general habits and behavior,” the agency’s report said.
Esteller also wants to explore its potential use in biomedicine.
“We have identified genes and their variants that play an important role in determining the shape of the face. So the genes for the nose, mouth, forehead, and ears may also help in diagnosis,” says Esteller.
“From a person’s face we can tell a part of that person’s genome. This can be useful for early detection of genetic diseases,” he says.
A small-scale study
The researchers acknowledge that the study was conducted on a small scale. Believing this to be true, they are confident that their findings will not change even if a larger study is conducted.
“A large-scale study will provide more genetic variation and may be useful in elucidating the contribution of other layers of biological data to defining our faces,” Esteller said in the report.
“It’s hard to have someone who is 100 percent like us. But there are many people in the world who are 75 percent, 80 percent different. So we are at the right time,” Esteller told the BBC Mundo service.
“Once you scratch your surface a little bit, I think people are the same everywhere. We’re a species, whatever we are,” says Brunel, who has been fascinated with photographing identical strangers for years.
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