Why blue-eyed boys (and girls) are so brilliant
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Why blue-eyed boys (and girls) are so brilliant
By BEN CLERKIN
Last updated at 11:33 20 August 2007
The colour of your eyes could
determine your achievements in
life, say scientists.
They claim those with blue
eyes are more likely to sparkle
academically than those with
brown.
They are more intelligent and gain
more qualifications because they
study more effectively and perform better in exams.
Lily Cole
Blue-eyed Lily Cole recently
secured a place at King's College,
Cambridge, to read social and political
sciences after achieving five As at A-level
..
The discovery might help explain the success
of such disparate individuals as Stephen Hawking,
Alexander Fleming, Marie Curie, Stephen Fry and Lily Cole.
In reaction time trials conducted
by U.S. scientists, the brown-eyed
performed better,
making them more likely to succeed
at activities such as football,
hockey and rugby.
But the researchers concluded that
those with lighter eyes appeared to
be better strategic thinkers.
Blue-eyed boys and girls proved to
be more successful in activities that
required them to plan and structure their
time, such as golf, cross-country running -
and studying for exams.
Those highly intelligent Stephens
(Hawking and Fry):
New research has revealed that blue-eyed
individuals may study more effectively and
perform better in exams than those with dark eyes
Stephen Hawking,
author of A Brief History Of Time,
is Britain's most eminent physicist.
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin
while Marie Curie was the first twice-honoured
Nobel laureate for her work on radioactivity.
Writer and actor Stephen Fry gained a
scholarship to Cambridge while model
Lily Cole secured a place at King's
College, Cambridge, after achieving five As at A-level.
Joanna Rowe,
professor emeritus at the
University of Louisville in Kentucky,
who conducted the tests,
said the results suggested a
hitherto unexplored link between
eye colour and academic achievement.
"It is just observed, rather than explained,"
she said.
"There's no scientific answer yet."
Dr Tony Fallone, senior psychology
lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire,
who has also studied eye colour,
believes it should be taken more
seriously as an indicator of
personality and ability.
Most babies have blue eyes but they
usually darken as the pigment melanin
builds up in the iris.
Less melanin produces green, grey,
or light brown eyes.
Eyes with very little
melanin appear blue or grey.