Vermillion’s Just Another Name for Red

When
we tell people that we are among the 8% of men who suffer from color-blindness,
most of them imagine we live in a “Leave it to Beaver” world of stark
black and white.

Nothing could be further from the truth! We see millions of colors,
they’re just not the same as the colors everyone else sees, and since
most of them don’t have names, we have trouble telling them apart..

A recent article in the American
Journal of Human Genetics explains
why the Dowbrigade always checks with Norma Yvonne always checks with
Norma Yvonne before leaving the house in the morning, to make sure we
aren’t committing a color-coded fashion faux pas…

It turns out there’s a perfectly good reason why men can’t see what
is so obvious to women: the many variations–some subtle, some bold–of
the color red.

Reuters reports that researchers from Arizona State University in Tempe have
determined there is a gene that allows us to see the color red, and that gene
comes in a high number of variations. Because the gene sits on the X chromosome–and
women have two X chromosomes and so two copies of this gene, compared with only
one for men–the gene aids women’s ability to perceive the red-orange color spectrum.

from
the American Journal of Human Genetics