Have you ever wondered what lies behind the diverse colors of the human iris? Black, brown, brown, green, blue…they’re all part of what makes each person unique. However, did you know that there is a secret member among them?It’s about blue eyes because although it may seem so at first glance, it really is they are not that color: The human eye does not have the blue pigment that provides this shade.
So why do so many people have eyes of this color, and where do they come from? We tell you the answer to this mystery, which may sound familiar to you, because it’s the same science that explains the blue color of the sky or ocean.
Light color
In fact, color is nothing more than the way our eyes interpret the light from the different objects around us. so, very light color. So what depends on this interpretation and the different tone we see? Well, nothing more than the amount of light these objects absorb or reflect.
White light is broken down into different wavelengths by glass pyramid prisms.
Light consists of a set of wavelengths, each identified by a color: the longest wavelength is red, orange, or yellow; the longest wavelength is red, orange, or yellow; the longest wavelength is red, orange, or yellow . While the shorter ones are identified by their blue and purple hues.Therefore, when light reaches an object, it absorbs or Will reflect some of it depending on the material it is made of, thus determining its color. The ones it reflects go to your eyes, the brain converts its wavelength to color, and you associate that hue with the hue of the object, while the ones it absorbs don’t cooperate to assign the hue.
Isaac Newton, the first to explain the nature of color
blue eyes don’t exist
So what happens to blue eyes?ok what without any blue paint But the blue tint is entirely due to the behavior of the iris: it absorbs long-wavelength light and reflects the hue associated with blue. This is not the case with brown, where melanin (a substance also associated with the brown color of hair or skin) is located in the iris, directly staining it brown.
The iris is the area responsible for providing color to the human eye. It consists of two main layers: Pigment epithelium and matrix. The first is the epithelium, where almost all humans contain some amount of melanin, the brown pigment. The protagonist in this aspect of tonality is therefore the second layer, the matrix, consisting of a series of superimposed fibers and a large number of specialized cells.
The iris of the eyeball. The broadest and lightest layer on the left corresponds to the stroma, interrupted by a small white area representing the pupillary sphincter. The darker, thinner layer on the right is the pigmented epithelium.
If the matrix lack of pigment, the fibers are dispersed throughout the area, meaning they absorb long wavelengths and reflect short wavelengths, the blue tint that makes the eye appear that color when seen by others. However, when the stroma contains melanin, it binds to the melanin behind, covering the iris and coloring it brown.
Why humans see red but many other animals don’t
What about green eyes?
Green eyes are an odd combination of these two conditions.So, same as the brown tint, the tint is given The amount of melanin in the stroma should be very little with a very light brown pigment called lipochrome. Thus, the absence of melanin will result in a blue tinge due to the reflection of light, but the presence of lipopigments will combine to produce a green tinge.
Another odd example is the case of infants, as it is normal for babies to have blue eyes during their first year, although they can turn brown later. This is because, at birth, Not much melanin It is during the first year of life that this pigment builds up, darkening a baby’s iris.
However, both blue and green hues change over time. This is logical if we consider that they are colors based on the way light reflects, so, depending on lighting conditionsthey have the potential to take some variant or the other.
However, if you belong to this group with light-colored eyes, don’t worry, because your vision is not affected by these characteristics in any way: they are only external factors and have nothing to do with the function of the retina. In short, part of your melanin has decided to leave the iris.