Thursday, March 02, 2006

Blonds going extinct?

Will natural blonds become a thing of the past? A recent article in UK's Times said,
A study by the World Health Organisation found that natural blonds are likely to be extinct within 200 years because there are too few people carrying the blond gene. According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202.
This 'study' has been cited by multiple news sources. My wife heard it being discussed on the radio. People are saddened--natural blonds will be no longer.

It turns out (fortunately, depending on your perspective) it's just not true. This story was somehow fabricated. It's only an urban legend that fooled a major newspaper, and seems to have been circulating for awhile according to the WHO response.

As we all should know, genetics is much more complicated than that. (see this pic) Skin color is believed to be determined by as many as seven genes. It's no simple case of dominant and recessive. It's pretty funny how popular the story became, however. Apparently the world would consider it a loss if there were no more blonds...

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