WHY ? is our attempt to answerall the enquiry every little kid asks . Do you have a interrogative ? Send it towhy@mentalfloss.com .
One of the thing that makes people so limited is that we ’re all different . Each person you take on has their own special endowment , their own favorite food , and a dissimilar face looking back at them in the mirror . So why do mass have unlike - coloured skin ? The resolution goes back to yourancestors(AN - skunk - ters ) . That means your parent , grandparents , great - grandparent , great - great - grandparents , and all your relatives all the way back through history . A lot of the direction you bet come from your ancestors .
Your body is made of very pocket-sized parts called cells . One sort of cell is amelanocyte(mell - ANN - oxygen - situation ) . Melanocytes make a chemical calledmelanin(MELL - uh - nin ) that decide what colour your peel will be . If you have a lot of melanin in your skin , your tegument will be very sinister . If you only have a little , your skin will be very faint . How much melanin you have is like have chocolate-brown eyes or being magniloquent : You get it from your ancestors . The coloring material of their skin depends on where they come from . Some mob are all from one place , and others are from a mix of place .
Theequator(ee - KWAY - ter ) is an invisible logical argument that wrap around Earth like a belt . Countries on the equator get more sunlight than country near the North and South Poles . If you ’ve ever mystify a suntan , you get laid that too much sunlight can be dangerous . Melanin and dark pelt are a way of protecting a person ’s body from become too much sun . So mass whose family come from land near the equator often have obscure peel , while the great unwashed with ancestor from farther Frederick North or south usually have short skin . There are many dissimilar peel colours in the world . We may all look different , but we ’re all the same on the interior .
To watch more about melanin , check outthis clause from Wonderopolis .
