Toronto — Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ has struck again – this time tearing down the idea of racism in a short and snappy online video that explains the science of skin colour.
In a 60-second video posted to social media app TikTok, Nye uses a multi-coloured map to show where the most ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun shines on Earth, pointing out that it is most intense around the equator.
Nye’s lesson is swift and straight to the point. “And it turns out that everybody on Earth is descendent from people that live here, in Africa,” Nye says in the video that has been viewed more than 10 million times since it was posted on July 19. “And then as groups of us move around the world, the colour of our skin had to change,” he added.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND SKIN COLOUR
The reason, Nye explains, is based in human biology.
Vitamin D is produced in people’s skin, he explains, using UV light that shines from the sun. More UV means more vitamin D, Nye says, adding that too much can be a bad thing too.
Nye goes on to say that, because exposure to UV light varies depending on where you are on the planet, so will a person’s skin colour.
As a result, he says, skin colour has evolved to deal with the amount of UV in the environment and as a result, people had lighter skin colour the further away from the equator they were.
“And that’s it, everybody. That’s why we have different coloured skin. But we’re all one species,” Nye concluded in the video. “But we’re not treating each other fairly. Not everybody is getting an even shake. So it’s time to change things,” he reiterated.
Nye’s explanation is based on the work of anthropologist Nina Jablonski and geographer George Chaplin, who published “The evolution of human skin coloration” in the Journal of Human Evolution in July, 2000.
