I've heard that brown eyes are dominant when it comes to genetics.
Say you have a mother with brown eyes and a father with hazel eyes, will all of their kids have brown eyes, or might one or all get hazel eyes?
if one of them has blue eyes should we blame it on the UPS guy?
if one of them has blue eyes should we blame it on the UPS guy?
That was actually in an episode of "Doc Martin." The boy had blue eyes and his father had brown eyes. His dead mother also had brown eyes. Because of his blue eyes, he was sure his father wasn't his biological father even though his name was on the birth certificate as being his father. His mother had an affair before he was born.
Doc Martin said it's rare, but he could have blue eyes with both parents having brown ones.
Doc Martin said it's rare, but he could have blue eyes with both parents having brown ones.
That's what "Dominant" means. I you get a gene for blue eyes and agene for brown eyes, then you get brown eyes. (Note, in this system, there are no hazel eyes.)
So if you have a couple each of them having one brown gene and one blue gene, then they will have brown eyes but 1/4 of their children would have blue eyes.
Note that this 1/4 is a statistical answer. If they have one child, that child has 1/4 chance of having blue eyes; if they have 2 children. the chances are 1 in 16 of both of the children having blue eyes.
Note that this is an over-simplified picture taught to illustrate the laws of genetics rather than explain the diversity of eye color.
(Note, in this system, there are no hazel eyes.)
Trust me, hazel eyes are definitely inherited (i.e. genetic), as my entire family has it, and I've yet to meet a black or Indian with hazel eyes (i.e. non-dominant gene), though it's a recessive trait, which accounts for how rare it is.
But you are right, in that hazel eyes aren't so much about eye color, as it's simply such a light eye color, that it's easier to see the various shades reflecting whatever's nearby.
Grandpa could be to blame.
As I understand it, it's more complicated than that.
We each have two genes for eye color. And gene dominance in this case is more of a continuum than a binary state.
Suppose
Dominance (I don't know if this is correct, I'm pulling it out of my ass to illustrate the point.)
1 Brown
2 Hazel
3 Blue, Green (Blue and Green are equal)
Parents
Mom Is brown/green Mom has brown eyes
Dad is hazel/blue Dad has hazel eyes
Their kids can end up as any of
1 brown/hazel
2 brown/blue
3 hazel/green
4 green/blue
Any one kid that gets 1 or 2 probably ends up with brown eyes
A kid that gets hazel/green ends up hazel
A kid that gets blue/green could end up with blue eyes, green eyes or even one of each.
ETA: To extend on SB's comment a bit
If mom and dad are both brown/blue, they both probably have brown eyes however, their kids have a 1 in 3 chance of ending up with blue eyes.
The possible combos for the kids are
brown/brown
brown/blue
blue/blue
Sometimes if both parents have the same recessive gene and they match up then a recessive trait can appear in the children.
Also, hazel isn't technically a color. Instead, for most of us, the eyes reflect light differently. So while dating, my eyes would always match whatever my date was wearing--especially whenever we'd make out. So, while it looks 'hazels', it's more of a reflective tint. I've also heard the same from other hazel-eyed friends.
hazel-eyed
"Hazel eyes: What causes hazel eye color?
By Amy Hellem; reviewed by Gary Heiting, OD
Hazel eyes are a bit of a mystery.
For starters, people describe this beautiful eye color in many different ways. Some say it looks like hazelnut, while others call it golden or brownish green.
One of the reasons it's so hard to describe hazel-colored eyes is that the hue itself seems to change, depending on what you wear and the type of lighting you are in.
Also, although hazel eyes appear to contain hues of green, amber and even blue, these color pigments don't exist in the human eye.
So where does this stunning color come from?
How eye color is determined
Most of us were taught in high school science class that we inherit our eye color from our parents, and that brown eye color is dominant and blue is recessive. That would mean that two parents with blue eyes cannot have a child with brown eyes because neither parent carries the dominant form of the gene for brown eyes.
But it turns out the story is more complicated than that.
Recent research has shown that up to 16 genes (not just one or two) may influence eye color, which makes predicting eye color much more difficult.
Due to variations in the interaction and expression of multiple genes, it's hard to say for sure what color a child's eyes will be based on the color of his or her parents' eyes.
For example, we now know it's possible for two blue-eyed parents to have a child with brown eyes β something the old model of eye color inheritance would have deemed impossible.
Also, eye color can change dramatically in the first few years of life. Many white, non-Hispanic babies are born with blue eyes and then develop brown, green or hazel eyes in childhood.
This phenomenon has little to do with genetics, but it does help explain where hazel eyes come from.
What causes hazel eyes?
The pigmented structure inside the eye that surrounds the pupil and gives eyes their color is called the iris. The pigment responsible for eye color is called melanin, which also affects skin color.
The reason many white, non-Hispanic babies are born with blue eyes is that they don't have the full amount of melanin present in their irises at birth. In the first few years of life, more melanin may accumulate in the iris, causing blue eyes to turn green, hazel or brown.
Babies whose eyes turn from blue to brown develop significant amounts of melanin. Those who end up with green eyes or hazel eyes develop a little less.
Babies of African-American, Hispanic and Asian ethnicities are usually born with dark eyes that stay brown throughout life. This is because these individuals naturally have more melanin in their eyes and skin.
Light absorption and scattering
There are no blue, green or hazel pigments in the eye. Eyes merely have different amounts of melanin, which is a dark brown pigment.
So how can a dark brown pigment create blue, green or hazel eyes? This is possible because of two processes:
Melanin in the iris absorbs different wavelengths of light entering the eye.
Light is scattered and reflected by the iris, and some wavelengths (colors) scatter more easily than others.
Eyes with high concentrations of melanin absorb more light entering the eye, so less is scattered and reflected back from the iris. The result is a brown eye color.
In eyes with lower concentrations of melanin, less light is absorbed, and more is scattered and reflected by the iris.
Since light rays with shorter wavelengths (blue and green light) scatter more easily than light rays with longer wavelengths (red light), eyes with less light-absorbing melanin appear green or hazel, and eyes with low concentrations of melanin appear blue.
Also, the distribution of melanin can vary in different parts of the iris, causing hazel eyes to appear light brown near the pupil and more green in the periphery of the iris.
Hazel eyes are a work of art
Hazel eye color is both complex and magnificent, since its specific features are determined by many factors:
The amount and distribution of melanin in the iris.
How the scattering of light by the iris and pigment molecules affects color.
How the perception of eye color is influenced by lighting and the color of our clothing and surroundings.
Just as it takes many strokes of the artist's brush to produce a masterpiece, hazel eyes involve the dynamics of several elements to create the unique work of art that's represented in every hazel eye.
If you wear eyeglasses, consider lenses with an anti-reflective coating to eliminate distracting reflections in your glasses and allow others to see the beauty of your hazel eye color.
Changing your eye color with hazel contacts
If your eyes aren't naturally hazel, but you've always wanted them to be, you can achieve your wish with color contact lenses.
They won't actually change your eye color, of course, just the appearance of it.
Color contact lenses are available in many colors, so you can choose from a spectrum that includes every shade from light hazel to dark hazel.
But it's not simply a matter of choosing a lens color you like; the natural color of your eyes has a role in determining which lenses will look best.
If you have very light eyes, color contacts with an "enhancement tint" might be a good choice. These lenses have a translucent color that lets some of your natural color show through β to make your light blue eyes a deeper blue, for example.
If your eyes are light enough, you might achieve the hazel eye color you want with an enhancement tint.
More likely, you'll need lenses with an opaque tint to achieve a hazel eye color. These lenses are designed to mask your natural eye color with the color you desire. These lenses work well if you have dark brown eyes and want to give them a lighter appearance, including hazel.
An eye care professional can show you various colors and help you make the right choice.
Remember, hazel contact lenses require a contact lens prescription. So if you don't already wear contacts, you'll need an eye exam and a prescription before getting them β even if you have perfect vision without corrective lenses.
SEE RELATED: Eye color change surgery
Celebrities with hazel eyes
Here's a list of well-known celebrities who proudly sport hazel eyes:
Kelly Clarkson
Brooke Shields
Kristen Stewart
Ben Affleck
Jenny Mollen
Olivia Munn
Jason Statham
Tyra Banks
Jeremy Renner
Dianna Agron
Steve Carell
David Beckham
Heidi Klum
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Jessica Biel
Jason Bateman
Demi Moore
Rebel Wilson
Angelina Jolie
Did having hazel-colored eyes contribute to these celebrities' fame? We're not sure, but you could say that Kelly Clarkson's song "Behind These Hazel Eyes," from her Breakaway album, certainly did.
LEARN MORE: Eye color genetics"
Recent research has shown that up to 16 genes (not just one or two) may influence eye color, which makes predicting eye color much more difficult.
Ah someone already posted something indicating the old model taught regarding there only being 2 gene-pairs involved is wrong. Good to see.
A major advantage of hazel eyes, is that it not only reflects what your date is wearing, it'll also reflect back the your lovers eye color while you're kissing. That includes hazel eyes turning "brown" when kissing a dark-skinned brown-eyes girl. Clearly, we (the hazel-eyed community) don't have any of that dominant gene, but that doesn't make the depth of the reflected brown any less distinctive!
I may not have been the best kisser, but my eye color got my dates every timeβthough that can be equally as problematic, because while you're eager to resume kissing, they're staring at you damn eyes!
Did having hazel-colored eyes contribute to these celebrities' fame?
I can guarantee that it didn't, as the biggest feature of hazel eyes (i.e. reflecting colors to match the situation) doesn't work in film, as you've got to be REALLY damn close to see it in someone's eyes.
Typically, while it stands out distinctly when your inches away from someone kissing them, it's virtually indistinguishable form 3 to 5 inches away.
My father had brown eyes, my mother had blue eyes. My eyes turned up blue, my sisters eyes were all brown. I took more after my mother's side in appearance where my sisters all took after my father's side. There was no UPS driver or milkman involved.
The thing I took more from my father was the RzRz blood type. Which is not something that comes normally from Euro genetics. Whereas my sisters were standard blood types.
If someone can figure that puzzle out, I'd be interested in hearing it.
Rz blood type. ...If someone can figure that puzzle out, I'd be interested in hearing it.
Well, I can't explain it, but I've come across a few interesting websites, the first of which specifically mentions the genetics of the RzRz phenotype WRT what I presume is a TV show over there, and links to another usefully relevant looking page.
https://newamsterdam-fox.fandom.com/wiki/RzRz
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1601-5223.1949.tb03357.x
http://downloads.lww.com/wolterskluwer_vitalstream_com/sample-content/9780781782043_quinley/samples/chapter10.pdf
Thanks for looking those up. I've seen two of them already. The blood type I already knew the answers for. The eye color and what recessive genes pop up, I'm not so clear on.
My eyes turned up blue, my sisters eyes were all brown.
I've also know a couple (though it's very rare) in your situation who end up with different colored eyes (i.e. one brown and one blue). It's generally not a particularly desired trait, as it becomes the center of any new conversation, but it is known to happen. Which again shows, that there are multiple factors (i.e. genes) which affect eye color.
My daughter has bright blue eyes and is a blonde. Both my wife and I have brown eyes. Both of our mothers had blue eyes and were blondes.
We've never had a milkman.
They only drop packages at the bottom of the driveway.
Both ancestry and 23&me give me further assurance.
They only drop packages at the bottom of the driveway.
Do they leave the 'packages' under gooseberry bushes?
AJ
I guess "gooseberry bush" is a sexual innuendo but have no idea for what. For that matter what is a gooseberry?
what is a gooseberry?
In an attempt to beat the grinning dick ...
As per Wikipedia
Gooseberry (/ΛΙ‘uΛsbΙri/ or /ΛΙ‘uΛzbΙri/ (American and northern British) or /ΛΙ‘ΚzbΙri/ (southern British)),[1]β is a common name for many species of Ribes (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the genus Ribes (sometimes placed in the genus Grossularia) are edible and may be green, red, purple, yellow, white, or black.[2][3]
Something I didn't know until a couple of minutes ago - 'gooseberry bush' is 19th century slang for 'pubic hair'. So, in response to the question 'Where did I come from?', when kids are told they were found under a gooseberry bush, it's literally true. (Unless mum or trans-dad had a C-section).
AJ
A potential c-section isn't the only problem here.
what if the birthing parent had mowed his or her gooseberry bush.
kids are told they were found under a gooseberry bush
On this side of the pond it's under a cabbage leaf (hence the name of the cabbage patch doll).
under a cabbage leaf
I think you've just put me off having sex with American women. Not that I'm inundated with offers ;-)
AJ
I think you've just put me off having sex with American women. Not that I'm inundated with offers ;-)
Children being found under cabbage leaves has nothing to do with sex. Indeed, it is intended as an explanation for babies having nothing to do with sex.
Wouldn't it be nice if it were an obscure cockney saying: cabbage patch = snatch ;-)
AJ
cabbage patch = snatch
Or a long section of Interstate 84 east of Pendleton, Oregon.
On this side of the pond it's under a cabbage leaf (hence the name of the cabbage patch doll).
That's not quite the same implications, as "under the cabbage leaf" is an answer to "where did I come from" (i.e. that's where the stork left you after delivering you. I'm assuming the gooseberry reference is a direct dig into what your parents were doing nine months before you were actually born.
By the way, the Cabbage Patch dolls actually came with a fake cabbage leaf, which the babies sat on as you removed them from the box. Luckily, they were quickly lost (and tossed) soon after opening.
So, in response to the question 'Where did I come from?', when kids are told they were found under a gooseberry bush, it's literally true.
It is most definitely NOT literally true.
To be 'found' under a woman's pubic hair means that the woman was utterly unaware of giving birth, yet for no apparent reason either spontaneously decided to search her pubic region, or the baby became entangled and remained thus, completely undetected until later discovery.
AJ, I can assure you that a woman would notice giving birth and would certainly not miss her knickers suddenly bulging with the expelled placenta.
AJ, I can assure you that a woman would notice giving birth and would certainly not miss her knickers suddenly bulging with the expelled placenta.
It's happened, or at least there are women who claimed that it happened.
https://www.timesnownews.com/the-buzz/article/woman-who-didnt-know-she-was-pregnant-gives-birth-in-toilet/608657
https://www.foxnews.com/health/delaware-woman-birth-in-toilet
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mass-woman-didnt-know-she-was-pregnant-until-she-delivered-theres-a-baby-in-the-toilet/2347395/
Can't find a link to such a story right now, but I've read about cases of women charged with either infanticide or abandoning a baby who claimed not to have had any idea they were pregnant.
It's happened, or at least there are women who claimed that it happened.
No. The woman you refer to didn't realise she was pregnant UNTIL HER WATERS BROKE which is very different to giving birth and not realising until the woman discovered her baby under her pubic hairβ¦
Which one? Each of those links is a different case.
From the middle link (Delaware):
A
Delaware woman who tried to get pregnant for years with no success figured that, by age 37, it just wasn't in the cards.
But in August, Carla Collazo began having severe back pains while she was in the bathroom. She called out for her sister-in-law to come help.
"It just happened so fast, everything just came out," Alexandra Santos, Collazo's sister-in-law, told Fox 29.
Santos said in a Facebook post that she began yelling for Collazo to open her legs so she could see what was happening, and that they were both shocked to discover that she was in the midst of giving birth to a baby girl.
She claims she had no idea she was giving birth on the toilet until her sister in law actually saw the baby coming out.
Which one?
Any. All indicate the mother was aware of the act of giving birth. None of those links describe a woman unaware of giving birth until afterwards when they discovered their newborn under their pubic hair.
Try again?
Any. All indicate the mother was aware of the act of giving birth. None of those links describe a woman unaware of giving birth until afterwards when they discovered their newborn under their pubic hair.
All the references I've seen (and I've seen several over the years), the mother was significantly heavy, so the additional pregnancy wait was view as merely being a 'mile' weight variation. It's not like a girl weighing 100 pounds suddenly popping out a baby!
All the references I've seen (and I've seen several over the years), the mother was significantly heavy, so the additional pregnancy wait was view as merely being a 'mile' weight variation. It's not like a girl weighing 100 pounds suddenly popping out a baby!
While it also is uncommon, it is "common enough" occurrence that there is some information gathered on the phenomena. And the mother trending strongly towards morbidly obese is a very common factor in their being unaware of the pregnancy. As they fail to notice the changes to their body during the pregnancy, or simply attribute it to something they already do -- weight gain for no particular reason.
There are old folk tales about women in serfdom who, going to work on the field tied piece of cloth loosely hanging between legs, so that the baby when it falls out wouldn't be hurt hitting the ground.
There are old folk tales about women in serfdom who, going to work on the field tied piece of cloth loosely hanging between legs, so that the baby when it falls out wouldn't be hurt hitting the ground.
Not quite as extreme, but I know an old farmer not far from me who claims that back when the Native Americans were still commonly working their fields(back in the 1950's in his case). He had occasion to see one woman stop working, wander over to a nearby ditch with someone accompanying them, then return not long after with an infant in an improvised carrier, and resumed working.
Well, those women working for German crusader established mansions seen their absolute rights restored after Russian imperial conquest hadn't had the luxury to stop for not being flogged.
Thanks to Swedish crown established schools they likely were literate, by the way.
He had occasion to see one woman stop working, wander over to a nearby ditch with someone accompanying them, then return not long after with an infant in an improvised carrier, and resumed working.
But what colour eyes did it have? ;-)
AJ
Something I didn't know until a couple of minutes ago - 'gooseberry bush' is 19th century slang for 'pubic hair'.
That's a MUCH better explanation, though not being European, I've never encountered the expression. It doesn't seem to appear in many British-English literary works.
For that matter what is a gooseberry?
It's a fruit which I've only ever see in Europe, though Whole Foods sometimes carries it. It's a particular rich variant (structure wise) of the blueberry (i.e. sweet and somewhat bitter with semi-hard seeds).
I'm assuming 'under the gooseberry' is a reference to 'rolling around in the grass where your parents can't see you.
It's a fruit which I've only ever see in Europe, though Whole Foods sometimes carries it. It's a particular rich variant (structure wise) of the blueberry (i.e. sweet and somewhat bitter with semi-hard seeds).
Gooseberries are grown in the USA too, although some states have restrictions for phytosanitary reasons.
Gooseberries and Blueberries are not closely related, Grossulariaceae vs Ericaceae.
AJ