[henk brouwer]

Originally posted by couslee:

the biggest problem, is a lot of people have never been tested for it. I have read the "most" men are colorblind, and "most" women are not, but I am not sure of the validity of that statement.. Likewise, I have read that people who are colorblind see better in the dark. But who knows for sure, without doing a lot of research.

one in 12 males is red/green colorblind, and only one in 144 females. The gene for colorblindness is on the X chromosome, of which males have only one and females two. This results in the lower percentage for females since all X chromosomes have to carry the colorblindness gene.

I remember reading an article in the scientific section of the newspaper on the subject some time ago, and they found that being colorblind had some advantages too. I think it had something to do with being able to estimate distances more clearly, but it might have been better darkvision as couslee says, at least something that was a big advantage in hunting, when we still lived in caves etc. It was a good explanation for why so many people have genes for colorblindness.

Edit: I found a site with lots of information about colorblindness, it also simulates how people with colorblindness perceive certain colors/contrasts:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/j...olorblindness/

One of the Last paragraphs indeed states that colorblind people have better darkvision and would be better at detecting camouflaged objects. It seems you would actually have an advantage when applying for a job in the army as sniper/spotter.

[ January 20, 2003, 11:02: Message edited by: henk brouwer ]