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Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Aimee Hopper answered on 16 Jun 2014:
eye colours are produced due to genetic differences in our DNA, the stuff that “programs” what we look like.
certain genes (essentially just likes of code) are “stronger” or more dominant than others. So, if someone has a parent with brown eyes, and the other with blue, chances are the child would have brown eyes too.
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Dave Jones answered on 16 Jun 2014:
Like Aimee says, it’s all about genes. The same things that decide whether we’re short or tall, the colour of our hair, the colour of our skin, everything about us! Those same things are in charge of our eye colour. This can explain why people with blonde hair are more likely to have blue eyes than people with brown hair – it’s because the genes for blonde hair and blue eyes more often go together.
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Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 16 Jun 2014:
Like Aimee and Dave said, it’s all about generics. Here’s a bit more details if you are interested:
For a long time, scientists thought that eye colour was due to a single gene. A complete person is made of 2 copies from the same genes (except for the genes that are on the sexual chromosomes, but that’s a different story). One copy comes from the dad, and one copy comes from the mom. For example, it was thought that brown was dominant over blue. So if your dad gave you a brown-eyes genes and your mom a blue-eyes genes, then you’d have brown eyes.
However, recently, it was understood that there are actually many genes (at least 2) that contribute (otherwise, how would someone ever get green eyes?). One gene controls where you are on the blue-blown spectrum (and you have 2 copies of it, one from dad+one from mom), and another one controls where you are on the green-blue spectrum (again, you have 2 copies of that one).
The cool thing about this is that since blue is not dominant neither over green nor over green, everyone with blue eyes have a common ancestor. So eyes colour do says something about your ancestors!!
If you want to know more, look at the cool infographic here:
http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/what-your-eye-color-reveals-about-you-infographic/
Comments
Ben commented on :
Our eyes can also change colour throughout our lives, getting lighter or darker.