• Question: What is the name of the substance/matter that makes our eyes a certain colour?

    Asked by author2913 (Victoria) to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      The colouring of our eyes is found in the iris.
      The pigment is due to a family of molecules called melanin.

      Iris colour is due to variable amounts of eumelanin (brown/black melanins) and pheomelanin (red/yellow melanins).

      More of the first is found in brown eyed people and more of the second in blue and green-eyed people.

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Melanin is the pigment (dye) in the iris that makes the eyes different colours. Brown eyes have a lot of melanin in the iris, whereas blue eyes have none or very very little. Green and grey eyes have a little bit of melanin but you can still see the blue underneath. Refraction of light through the outer transparent layers of the eye change the colour to different shades of grey and green for different concentrations of melanin (but all lower concentrations than in brown eyes).

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