• Question: how do you get skin colour?

    Asked by Professor Rayyan to Emma, Christopher, Ashley, Ananthi, Aaron on 11 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Aaron Brown

      Aaron Brown answered on 11 Nov 2017:

      Skin colour is produced through a special chemical called ‘Melanin’ produced through special cells in the skin called ‘melanocytes’. This chemical is a pigment which shows a dark colour, so the more melanin produced the darker the skin tone 🙂 UV radiation causes melanin to be produced so that’s why suntans can happen.

    • Photo: Emma Stevenson

      Emma Stevenson answered on 11 Nov 2017:

      Looks like Aaron has got this question sorted! 😀

    • Photo: Ananthi Ramachandran

      Ananthi Ramachandran answered on 12 Nov 2017:

      Yes exactly, Aaron covered it perfectly with the explanation about Melanin. I will just add to it by saying natural selection made it so that people who lived further from the equator had lighter skin colours so they could absorb more vitamin D. As the sun’s rays and UV can be damaging the people who lived nearer to the equator evolved to have permanently darker skin to reduce the risks from the strong sunlight.

Comments