Slashdot Mirror
Women See Colors Better
fenimor writes "The results of the study by researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, suggests that natural genetic selection has provided women with a frequent ability to better discriminate between colors than men. 'Normally, this degree of genetic variation is suppressed through natural selection,' says Brian Verrelli, a researcher at ASU. 'In this case, nature is supporting a high degree of variation instead.' Because women have two X chromosomes, women can receive one chromosome with the typical configuration of the red vision gene while the other chromosome receives a slight variation. By contrast, men have one X chromosome, and any variation in the single red gene that they receive reduces their ability to distinguish between red and green."
If this were fark, this story would have the OBVIOUS tag.
When I describe a color for my wife, she always corrects me, "That's not pink, that's peach!" or, "That's more of a seafoam green, Scott!"
Any man who is married & has gone paint shopping with his spouse knows exactly what I mean.
At least we now have a biological reason for our apparent color-blindness.
That explains why there are so many female master painters in the classical Western style, which uses subtle color variations to portray a scene in a very lifelike manner.
Rembrandt, being male, was obviously a hack.
If there's been a team of ladies concocting some of the recent Slashdot colour schemes recently, that might explain why my eyes hurt... :-)
I've taken this color blindness test myself and I have to say that I was shocked with the final results.
Finally I understand why they have run out of color names for makeup! Calculator Beige, Misty brown, Mirror, Dead Duck, Greedy Pumpkin and all variations.
Feel ready to own one or many Tux Stickers?
And here I thought it was my fault when I make my wife see red. Now I've got an excuse!
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."