• Question: what makes us all our induvidual colour? hibah :D

    Asked by bracegirl to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      All the qualities that vary person to person are encoded in our DNA, so the cool of skin, hair and eyes. Your DNA gives the sequences your body uses to make the proteins in you.I think skin colour is to do with how much melanin your skin cells make.

    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Yup, Judith’s right, our skin cells produce a pigment called melanin, and our skin colour depends on the amount of melanin they produce.

      Interestingly, people from hotter places have darker skin (their skin cells produce more melanin) than people from colder places. More melanin helps protect people from the sun, so biologists suggest that these differences are a result of natural selection.

Comments