Have you ever wondered why your eyes are the colour they are? Or did you ever secretly wish you had a different shade?
Whatever be the colour, one can’t negate the fact that each eye colour has its own charisma. While many believe that blue eyes is determined by a single gene and that two blue-eyed parents cannot have a brown-eyed offspring, we can thank the ever advancing research in Science for debunking this myth.
Research proved that two factors determine our eye colour. First being the amount and pattern of dark brown pigment, also called melanin present in the iris and secondly the way in which the iris scatters light that passes through the eye which ascertains your eye colour. The iris can be one of the six colours— blue, brown, gray, green, hazel, amber and red.
A team at the University of Copenhagen announced that people with blue eyes are related. They tracked down a genetic mutation that occurred 6-10,000 years ago that is cited to be the cause of blue-eyed humans. Eye colours are determined by the amount of melanin present in the iris, and as compared to others, blue eyes have the least amount of pigment present. Because of intercultural and interracial marriages, blue eyes are becoming rare.
Eyes with a high level of melanin are brown. It is the most common eye colour in the world. People from Asia, Africa and Middle East have dark brown eyes, while studies says 25% Australians with European ancestry have brown eyes.
Many may not be able to tell gray eyes from blue, but a closer look and you will see hints of gold and brown. Not much research have been done on gray eyes, so there are two reasons that could determine the gray colour, one being the amount of melanin present, and second is the density of proteins in the stroma.
After blue, green eyes are the least common eye colour in the world. Only 2 % of the world population have green eyes.
Sometimes hazel eyes can be confused with brown and green eye colours. Hazel eyes have moderate concentration of melanin, the light rays scatter in different parts of the iris, which cause hazel eyes to look light brown near the pupil and more green around the iris.
Red
It may sound unbelievable but red eyes do exist. We don’t mean redness in the eyes we usually have due to irritation. What you see in albinos is the blood vessels behind the iris. Because of lack of melanin in the eyes, the iris fails to conceal the blood vessels behind the iris.
Change is the only constant. Sometimes it is nice to see yourself in a different light, and we mean literally. Change your eye colour with our range of contact lenses, and see and feel the difference.
