Word: melanin
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...layers of the skin involved in the sun-screening process are visible under a microscope. Below the skin's outermost horny layer, or stratum corneum (see diagram), lies a germinative layer where, on exposure to sunlight, the pigment-producing cells are stimulated to produce more melanin-and a suntan. The black races (Negro, Bushman-Hottentot and Australoid), with a more abundant supply of melanin, are in effect, perpetually tanned. Members of the white race are transparent-skinned in winter, when they must make the most of the limited ultraviolet avail able to synthesize vitamin D, but they take...
...Claudia Boyarskikh, 24, a sturdy Siberian schoolteacher, led a 1-2-3 sweep in the grueling women's 10,000-meter cross-country ski race, also won the 5,000 meters, collected still a third gold medal as anchor woman on the victorious 15-kilometer relay team. Vladimir Melanin, described as "a 30-year-old student," coolly plinked 20 straight bull's-eyes (at ranges up to 273 yds.) to win the biathlon-an oddly militaristic combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. Skating with all the speed and sureness of, say, the Chicago Black Hawks, Russia...
What does make darker races darker is a larger proportion of fine, microscopic granules of black melanin scattered throughout the upper layers of their skin. In upper skin layers melanin disintegrates, turns into melanoid, the other pigment discovered in the skin by Drs. Edwards and Duntley. Everybody has some melanin and melanoid in his skin, but blonds have less than brunets, white women less than white men, white races less than dark races...
...melanin content increased in the subjects studied in the following order: Japanese, Hindu, mulatto and Negro," said the scientists. "Our studies do not support the theories that the pigmentation of the skin in the dark races is caused by pigments which are not found in the white race...
...Besides melanin and both hemoglobins, said the scientists, a yellow pigment, carotene, is found in the upper layers of all human skin. Carotene, a component of sweet potatoes, corn, butter, carrots and milk, is responsible for the yellowish palms, soles and eyelids of white persons. But although a white person may acquire a pale yellow tinge all over by eating enormous amounts of carotene, carotene is not what makes Orientals yellow. Normal persons of all races have roughly the same amounts of carotene...