Around eight to ten per cent of the population have blue eyes and apparently, they all have one thing in common.
The eye colour is the second most prevalent in the globe, and it is said to have first appeared between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Since all people initially had brown eyes in a variety of tones, it is thought that a genetic mutation is what caused the widespread iris coloration to begin.
A gene named HERC2 has just been shown to be responsible with blue eyes.
This gene controls how much of the brown pigment melanin we produce and turns off OCA2, which causes varied colours of brown eyes.
We all used to have brown eyes, according to Professor Hans Eiberg from the university’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. But a’switch’ was created in our chromosomes that literally ‘turned off’ the capacity to generate brown eyes as a result of a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene.
It is believed to have originally begun when humans first migrated from Africa to Europe, The Independent details.
The study suggests that all blue-eyed people are descendants of one person.
Although it remains a mystery who first started this initial mutant gene, the fact every blue-eyed person has this mutation is pretty compelling evidence.
The research into the genetic mutation of persons with blue eyes, according to Professor Eiberg in the paper, “simply shows that nature is shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes, and trying out different changes as it does.”
But blue eyes have other intriguing qualities as well.
Additionally, blue-eyed folks have been found to be more light-sensitive.
According to Auckland Eye, having more melanin in the iris increases your eye’s defence against damage from UV and blue light.
So as people with blue eyes have less melanin than other colours, photophobia (which means abnormal sensitivity to light) is usually more common.
While this may sound like a negative, there are actually many perks to having blue eyes.
According to a study by Joanna Rowe, a professor at Louisville University, people with this eye colour are more likely to be better strategic thinkers.
The lecturer makes it clear: “It is just observed, not explained. Science has not yet provided a solution.
But there are many celebrities with blue eyes who have bright minds, including Stephen Hawking, Alexander Fleming and Marie Curie.
