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Disappearing blonde gene
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Blond hair: controlled by a recessive but not disappearing gene.

Disappearing blonde gene is a hoax that has periodically surfaced in the media since 1865,[1] with the most recent version starting in 2002. According to this hoax, the World Health Organization, or other experts, published a report claiming that people with blond hair "will become extinct by 2202."

The report was a hoax. Neither the WHO, nor any reputable expert has issued such a report.

The extinction claim is based on an interpretation of recessiveness in genetics. However unless blondness is positively selected against, it cannot become extinct, and the blond gene, or alleles for the trait cannot disappear by simple breeding.[2]

[edit] In the media

A number of news agencies, such as Canadian Press and BBC News took the bait. In 2002 the BBC News (and others) reported[3] that unnamed German scientists had concluded that the natural distribution of fair hair would cease within the span of 200 years, due to the genes associated with fair hair being recessive; only a select number of people from Finland will have naturally blond hair. The article stated that there is a reportedly low number of people carrying the recessive blond allele, especially in nations of mixed heritage (examples: USA, Canada,Brazil, New Zealand, Australia). The dominant alleles (brown hair, black hair, brown eyes) 'overthrow' the recessive genes or metaphorically, endanger them. Subsequently the study was attributed to the World Health Organization.

In October 2002 the New York Times reported that the World Health Organization had no knowledge of this study.[4] The WHO has since officially confirmed that the story is a fake.[5]

The hoax died out, only to resurface in 2006 in The Sunday Times[6] and La Repubblica: "According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202." It once again traveled quickly across the World Wide Web.[7] The hoax has also been featured on the "Threat-Down" segment of the satirical television show The Colbert Report on March 6, 2006, where Stephen Colbert suggested a selective breeding program to save blonds.

[edit] See also

* Disappearance of red hair

[edit] References