Jack Black is an American actor, comedian and musician. He is best known for his roles in comedies and has been nominated twice for the Golden Globe award.
Jack Black’s eye color is brown. Since eye color is inherited, it is of no surprise that both of Jack Black’s sons, Thomas and Samuel, have brown eyes as well. Jack Black’s eye color is not very unusual in the United States, as 41% of the population have brown eyes.
Read below on the science behind eye color, and why having brown eyes can be both a benefit and a drawback.
The Science Behind Eye Color
Brown eyes are the most common in the world. They are more prevalent than any other eye color in the world, but they can be found more often in some geographic places than others.
For example, most people native to Africa or Asia, and particularly in the Middle East, can be found to have brown eyes. However, not every brown eye color is the same, and they range from different shades of light to dark brown.
The color of anyone’s eyes depends on the amount of melanin present in the iris of the eyes. That is the only type of eye pigment, and if there is very little of it, people have blue or green eyes.
In case of brown eyes, melanin is present in greater quantities. If there is quite a lot of it, the eyes end up being darker shades of brown.
The science behind the inheritance of eye color is a little more complex. A very known fact is that two parents, who both share blue eye color, will have a child with blue eyes as well. If the child has brown eyes, the paternity may be in question.
This consequently leads to the thought that blue-eyes men are attracted to blue-eyed women for that paternal confidence. However, this is not as simple as it sounds, and our eye color inheritance is solely based on the dominant and recessive genes that are passed on from our parents.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Having Brown Eyes
Brown eyes seem to be underrated as the blue and green eye color is often thought of as more unique and is discussed more often. However, brown eyes are quite unique in their own sense.
Firstly, they can be found in so many different shades. The range of colors that eye colors can appear is fascinating and each pair is unique.
Interestingly though, if a person of lighter skin color has the brown eye color as an adult, that person was likely blue eyed when they were born. When first born, the child doesn’t have a lot of melanin in the body so the eyes appear blue.
Over the first six months of life, the baby’s melanin production will increase, and the eye color will progressively turn darker to match with the true phenotype.
A true benefit of having brown color eyes is that the possibility of getting a certain kind of cancer is lower as opposed to blue or green eyed people. Getting the cancer of the uvea, also known as melanoma of the eye, is more probable for light-eyed people as they often have lighter skin color.
There is also less risk for macular degeneration, a disease that causes a loss of vision to many Americans, for brown eyed folks, as well as, science showed that brown-eyed people have a higher tolerance for alcohol as compared to people with light color eyes.
A true benefit that brown-eyed people have is reduced sensitivity to light. While people with lighter eye colors, such as green and blue, have a hard time when it’s sunny outside due to their lack of pigment in the multiple layers of the eye, brown-eyed people do not suffer from photophobia as often.