The physics of melanin; the joy of colors

December 21, 2016 8:06 AM

Technically, melanin is a set of biomolecules that we think are synthesized by enzymes and that are notably very visibly colored. There are three types of melanin: the most common, eumelanin, which appears black or brown and occurs in skin and hair; the less abundant pheomelanin, which is on the yellow-to-red spectrum; and neuromelanin, which appears in high concentrations in the human brain, but the function of which we essentially don’t understand at all. For the most part, it seems, we don’t understand melanin. Despite this lack of scientific understanding, the social consequences of melanin are understood intimately by many of us.
posted by ChuraChura (15 comments total)

I had literally no idea that we knew so little about melanin. I am shocked, but also not. I guess there's really no incentive to study or explain the phenomena that we use to justify the most ingrained power structure in existence.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:21 AM on December 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

The BBC has a fairly good current documentary called Colour: The Spectrum Of Science. The presenter, Helen Czerski does a nice job of explaining the functional variations of melanin in the second episode.
posted by fairmettle at 8:53 AM on December 21, 2016

FirstMateKate: What a silly thing to say.

No one really cares about melanin the molecule, they care about melanin as a classification mechanism and a as a proxy for culture / background. If we had a hugely deep understanding of melanin the molecule it wouldn't change one thing about people's racial attitudes in this country.
posted by sp160n at 9:04 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

sp160n - racism and the science behind what makes people look different are tied together.
posted by xammerboy at 9:13 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

xammerboy: that's understood, but I don't see anyone running around saying they have problems with people because of melanin specifically. Of course there's a long history of pseudo-science based discrimination. I haven't heard of a single contemporary racist attitude that was based on melanin specifically.
posted by sp160n at 9:16 AM on December 21, 2016

An excellent read!

“Black is maple brass coffee iron mahogany copper cocoa bronze ebony chocolate.”
What a fantastic line of poetry. Delicious, precious, useful, valuable things.

I poked around looking for more *science* on neuromelin, but there's a whole lot on the internet that's just ick.

AAA+++ Would read more essays fromDr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein as well as the poetry of George Elliott Clarke.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:18 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

In other words, after centuries of kidnapping, locking up, beating, raping, robbing, and killing people in large part on the basis of the human eye’s perception of skin melanin content, studying the mechanical nature of melanin—its interactions with light and its movement and production in the body—became interesting only when it seemed necessary for enhancing the survival of people who don’t have a lot of it in their skin...

It is up to those of us who work in the fields of science, technology, and medicine to continuously raise the question of why it has taken us so long to recognize the spectacular and fascinating qualities of melanin that make it the object of research. Some of the answers are mundane: We have better technology for seeing small stuff now. Some of them are outrageous: Geneticists were so caught up in a eugenicist worldview that they were unable to actually do any useful research on melanin. But it is up to the physics community to thoroughly consider what these answers mean for our future as a collective of researchers who wish to understand how the world works. There is much to be learned from studying melanin, including how racism can derail our capacity to nurture discovery. Many questions remain, like whether the scientific community will do the hard work of ensuring that Black Americans, whether they have high concentrations of eumelanin in their skin or not, are welcome to become part of the research enterprise that will take our understanding of melanin out of the chaos and into the light.

posted by ChuraChura at 9:19 AM on December 21, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yes, that's the article's editorial opinion, but the article itself provides no evidence to back up those assertions. Did racism and the fascination with eugenics lead to the suppression of melanin research, or people shying away from it? Or was it that we didn't have the tools or concepts to really study it until now?

It would have been interesting if the article provided more depth or insight, but it's just a collection of some thoughts the author had that the article implies, but doesn't show, are related. It's not like we have a perfect understanding of all biological phenomenon even with massive effort: the purpose and function of sleep, for example, is still very unclear.
posted by Sangermaine at 9:33 AM on December 21, 2016

Did racism and the fascination with eugenics lead to the suppression of melanin research, or people shying away from it?

I think we're at a point where you have to prove that something that is even tangentially about or involved with race isn't because of racism.
posted by Etrigan at 10:14 AM on December 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

FirstMateKate: What a silly thing to say.

No, it's not.

You're saying that racism would exist regardless of whether we knew the science behind melanin.

I never disagreed with you, or said that solving the science behind melanin would cure racism (really, now?). I'm saying that racism has bolstered these scientists out of trying to learn about it because racism is so ingrained they either don't need an explanation for it, or would not accept any other answer. There's no incentive for truth when racism is the root.
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:45 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

Is TFA down for anyone else?
posted by tobascodagama at 11:24 AM on December 21, 2016

BlueHorse - just because something is indexed in PubMed doesn't necessarily mean it's any good.

Medical Hypotheses, unfortunately, is a terrible journal that doesn't require, well, evidence. Also, the linked article is from 2005, well before a (very) mild "correction" in 2010.

... and skimming the abstract, that's a garbage article.
posted by porpoise at 11:39 AM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

porpoise: As I said, ...there's a whole lot on the internet that's just ick, and that was the best of the worst I could find with a little googles. I'd love to read more about neuromelanin, but there doesn't seem to much out there. Has anybody else found anything?
posted by BlueHorse at 5:01 PM on December 21, 2016

I would like to read in-depth explorations of both race/racism and the science of melanin, but a rather crude mashup of the two, not so much. I get that they're not unconnected but neither are they quite as directly linked as the author tries to assert. Focus on one aspect or else tie it together better, and add more detail. It would be really great to have the grand essay intended, combining history, personal experience and science, but that is well beyond the actual reach. Interesting ideas I would like to know more about, but not in this (kind of idiosyncratic) style.
posted by blue shadows at 7:35 PM on December 21, 2016

Hi BlueHorse! Totally did not mean to pick on you - vetting of primary sources is HARD, and I guess the debate is whether it's journalist's responsibility to educate or whether the State (in the role of elementary, primary, and secondary education) is responsible.

I've been inebriated but I've done a perusal of the literature - and neuromelanin is one of those things that is... totally not relevant. This is shit that's meant to drive a wedge between mine and everyone else.

I can't/don't know how you see my position - I could (and probably would have ten years ago) go into education mode, but it's been so futile for so long and for so few returns. From our previous discourses, I feel that you have a competent and inquisitive mind so I kind of feel like I'm failing you, but I'm just so tired of being "the professor" or "the lecturer."

There are anatomical structures in the brain called the Olivary bodies (body) that's named because it's a bit darker (and yes, named purely on visual description - they actually look like olives sitting on either side of the brainstem). They have nothing to do with olives, but it feels like people who subscribe to The Right (USA) assume those things (foreigner olives controlling brains! - where olives get misconstrued as raisins, which are misconstrued as... literal raisins).

Ugh. I'm a bad progressive. I'd probably be tons better if I was paid (well) for educational work.
posted by porpoise at 7:44 PM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]