Redheads Wave Goodbye

Our flame-haired friends are bound for extinction: report
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2007 2:22 PM CDT
Redheads Wave Goodbye
Actress Julianne Moore, Academy Award nominee and now member of an endangered species.   (Associated Press)

Across the globe, true redheads are declining in number and may soon be gone altogether. More human intermingling has lessened redhead coupling, the Daily Mail reports, and carrot-tops may be no more as soon as 2060. Some scientists make less dire predictions, according to National Geographic, and say the ginger gene won’t fall out of the pool quite that quickly.

The 2% of the world’s population that currently has red hair inherited a gene that once helped humans make vitamin D from sunlight. If you want to boost the odds of landing your very own Nicole Kidman or Conan O'Brien substitute, head to Scotland—13% of the population has red hair, and three times that many carry the gene. (More extinction stories.)

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