# Blue eyes

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 6, 1999, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728 "1999-10-06T01:41:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stella\_Fantasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@Stella\_Fantasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stella_Fantasia)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728/1 "1999-10-06T01:41:00Z")

</div>

How come blue eyes are blue? I seem to recall reading somewhere that blue-eyed people don’t have any pigment in their irises, but then wouldn’t they have pink eyes, like albinos? I don’t think there is, like, a blue pigment or anything, so what makes blue eyes blue?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728/2 "1999-10-06T02:05:00Z")

</div>

[http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/summer/scor/articles/scor17.htm](http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/summer/scor/articles/scor17.htm)

[http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/dreams/83/eyesight.htm](http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/dreams/83/eyesight.htm)

Apparently the difference here, from the case of the albino, is that here there is melanin behind the iris to block the observer’s view of the pink (blood) that would otherwise show through. And, in the case of brown and hazel eyes, there are varying amounts of melanin in the iris itself.

Ray ("Don’t it make my brown eyes blue? No, but latanoprost makes hazel eyes brown.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728/3 "1999-10-06T02:20:00Z")

</div>

I don’t know what happened with that second URL, but here’s a better one anyhow, that discusses the difference between blue-eyed people/animals and albinos:

[http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6386/so03001.html](http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6386/so03001.html)

Ray

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pixoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pixoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixoid)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728/4 "1999-10-06T03:56:00Z")

</div>

Here’s what Cecil’s said about it:  
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/971205.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/971205.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-eyes/3728/5 "1999-10-06T11:35:00Z")

</div>

Also there is a thread in Comments on Columns, although it’s a way back in the list by now.

I have one blue eye and on eye that is half blue and half brown.