Re: OT: Mood-reflective eye-colour (WAS: Re: The Melting)

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> Do you know what causes this unusual effect? I can't off-hand think of any
> explanation ...
There is only one pigment in the iris, and that's melanin.  No melanin =
albinism = pink eyes, slight melanin = blue or gray eyes, moderate
melanin = green or hazel eyes, lots of melanin = brown or black eyes.
(There are only two other pigments that account for the entire range
of human colorations: red hemoglobin and orange/brown carotene.)

It's common enough to have variable pigmentation in different parts of
the iris: my eyes look blue to most people until one looks closely,
and then green flecks are visible, reflecting my green-eyed mother.
(Pure blueness is recessive; my father and half-siblings have pure
pure blue eyes.)  In Classical times, when the prevailing languages
didn't have a word for "blue" in general, I'm sure my eyes would
have been labeled gray.

Most people with variable eye color have moderate to slight melanin,
giving them a general range of blue-gray-green-hazel.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
"If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on
the shoulders of giants."
        --Isaac Newton

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