Why would a person have one blue and one brown eye or half brown and half blue or any other combination?

Question

We had this question come up in science class one day.

Answer 1

Eye color is another one of those woefully unstudied fields. Having multicolored eyes is called heterochromia. If your eyes become darker/browner, that's hyperchromia; if lighter/bluer, hypochromia. These conditions can signify one of two things: (1) some horrible disease, trauma, or other problem, or (2) nothing.

Multicolored eyes are fairly rare, usually benign, and frequently genetic in origin, occurring in maybe 1 percent of the population. Alexander the Great supposedly had them. So does rock legend David Bowie (one blue eye, one hazel or gray, depending on whom you ask). If you want to see an example and you and Bowie aren't speaking these days, heterochromia is common in some domestic animals. Check out a dalmatian or a Siamese cat.
One way to get heterochromia is to have somebody punch you in the eye as a kid. That seems to be what happened to David Bowie, who got popped at age 12 in a dispute over a girl. In many such cases the iris of the popped eye gets darker. Eye color is mainly a function of the pigment melanin. If your eyes have a lot of it, they're brown. If they don't, they're blue. (Some details of this explanation are in dispute, but don't worry about that now.) Green eyes result from yellowish flecks of fatty pigment against a dark background. Some men think a green-eyed woman is exotic.
Some people's eye color does change for no apparent reason. On average the changes were slight, about two or three notches. But I guess somebody has to be at the far end of the curve.
On the other hand--if, honest to God, your eyes shifted from hazel (medium brown) to light blue, that's a radical depigmentation--maybe not 15 on the Louisville scale but possibly 7 or 8.

Answer 2

Two of my kids have one brown and one green eye.

Both of them were born with blue eyes, but the colours changed during their first year.

I once asked a doctor about this, and he said I was making it up! But I'm not!

I have brown eyes and my wife has blue/grey eyes. The other 2 kids have brown eyes (one from birth, the other was born with blue but went brown in the first year).

I've never had an explanation of this phenomenon, and look forward to getting one now you've asked this question.

Thanks!

Answer 3

Beats the heck outta me, but I'll bet it has something to do with Genes and DNA and all that. Ask a Geneticist, maybe even an MD would know. Personally, I think it's cool.

Answer 4

nicely having blue eyes honest epidermis and freckles all jointly isnt very uncommon yet having darkish brown hair with all of those is kinda uncommon, yet not something extrodinary you sound especially although =]

Answer 5

I don't know the truth about this, but I was told once that if one eye color changes it could mean a brain tumor!

Maybe you can tell me if it's correct.

Answer 6

It's just something some people are born with.