Marilyn vos Savant writes a column for Parade magazine that comes with the weekend edition of our newspaper. Readers write her asking questions and she answers them. She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the highest IQ ever recorded. That is probably why she got the writing gig. Anyway, I love reading her answers to questions. I learn so much.
For example, she just answered a question from a reader about his girlfriend’s blue eyes. He wondered if it is just his imagination, or do her eyes change color depending on the lighting or even her mood? Marilyn says yes, blue eyes do change color. She explained blue eyes are missing a chemical called melanin which all brown eyes have. The blueness we see is coming from the light that the eyes reflect. Blue eyes change color according to the light striking them.
Makes me recall how the color of water changes depending on light. That is a very poetic, very lyrical sensation. Water and blue eyes are just made for songs. “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (all sung, perhaps, by Frank Sinatra, aka “Old Blue Eyes”) are just three old tunes that pop into this retro musician’s musical memory banks.
I also find it curious that the color of blue eyes changes according to one’s mood. That might be useful information for someone, but I would caution the boyfriend to be careful using that knowledge in their relationship. Suggesting she is in a grumpy mood because her eyes are changing color could be a recipe for disaster.
After just a little research, I discovered that in a previous column vos Savant also wrote about blue eyes. The question concerned the prevalence of blue eyes. It is estimated that in 1900, the U.S. population was about 88 percent white. At that time more than half of non-hispanic whites had blue eyes. Over the last 100-plus years as our population has become more diverse, the percentage of blue-eyed citizens is diminishing and is today less than one-sixth of the population. In some European countries, however, 20 to 40 percent of the population have blue eyes.
Turns out, blue-eyed people are mutants. I mean no offense. In fact, full disclosure: I have blue eyes. It’s just that scientists have determined that all blue-eyed people who ever lived came from one individual. Until this man or woman’s OCA2 gene mutated, all humans had brown eyes. According to a bunch of really smart researchers from Copenhagen University, all blue-eyed people can be linked back to this one ancestor who lived 10,000 years ago, probably near the Black Sea.
I wonder how he or she coped with all the other brown eyes in the tribe. It’s not always easy being different, as history repeatedly shows us. On the other hand, one theory—no doubt, from another really smart researcher—postulates the first blue-eyes may have been considered quite an attractive feature. This attraction would result in the desire to mate with blue-eyed people which would distribute the mutated gene.
Obviously, I’m going with this attractiveness theory. Who of the blue eye would not? Besides, my wife has blue eyes and I believe it is highly likely that her baby blues were a factor, however unconsciously, of the fact that we are now together. When I mentioned the possible connection between blue eyes and attractiveness, she said, “Oh, yes. I agree. When I think of blue eyes I think of Paul Newman.”
Not quite the response I was expecting, but, oh, well.
