Quote Of The Day


Monday, February 25, 2008

I'm a Mutant...
Originally everyone in the world had brown eyes. Then a mutant appeared and all that changed. All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor. Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen team has identified the gene which around 10,000 years ago underwent a genetic mutation in one individual who eventually gave rise to all blue-eyed people. Eiberg discovered that eye colours ranging from brown to green are caused by relatively large differences in the amount of melanin in the iris, controlled by "considerable individual variation" in the area of the DNA responsible for melanin production. However the variation in iris melanin levels across all blue-eyed individuals is very small. From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA. Eiberg also noted that the blue eyes mutation is neither "positive nor negative", since it doesn't affect chances of survival. He concluded: "It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.”


  1. Hanky8:33 am

    hey JX, that makes us relatives ;-) or as our beloved Mister A. sang: "He's my favourite mutant".
    Hugs, Hanky