Reading+Activity

=Welcome to my Reading Activity page I hope you enjoy!=

http://www.mastertanning.com/tips/25/tanning-process/

Tanning begins the moment you step out into the sun for most people. As UV rays penetrate the skin, it starts to break down DNA in the body. In order for the body to protect itself to prevent further damage to your body, it starts to produce melanin. The more melanin in your body, the darker the body becomes and the more protected you are from the sun. So someone who has spent a lot of time in the sun can stand out in the sun for longer periods of time without the risk of sunburn. A suntan needs to be gradual, so it is better to tan for only a little bit at a time and with the right sort of protection like using sunscreen.
 * How Does the Skin Tan in the Sun?

What is Melanin in the Skin? Melanin is produced to protect your skin from sun damage. The moment you are hit with UV rays, either from a tanning bed or from the sun, the body tries to protect itself from the rays by producing melanin. There is a type of cell in your body called melanocyte and this produces melanin, but it can only produce so much at a time. In some people it doesn’t produce melanin at all or very little of it. Those people have a sensitive skin type and shouldn’t stay out in the sun too long at all without moderate protection. Each person actually has about the same number of melanocyte cells in the body but only people above skin type I have melanocyte cells that produce more than enough melanin to create a tan in the body.

http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2005/09/why-do-people-have-different-colors-of.html Have we not wondered sometime in our life why humans have different skin colors? If you have children they might have even asked this same question or is yet to ask when they recognize this difference amongst people. So, some possible answers that you might have used to explain this could be: You got your color from- our relatives (ancestors); the sun; our genes and/or from melanin that is in our skin. If you have used anyone of these answers to explain skin color then, you are on the right track. As a matter of fact, all the possible answers given above do play an active role in the color of skin we have. Now, we are going to look at how these answers are related and what role they play in the color of our skin. Our skin color is determined(colored)by the pigment called melanin (meh-luh-nin). ￼ Melanin,dark brown or black in color,is produced by special cells called melanocytes (mel-AN-o-sites) located under our outer layer of skin. The function of melanin is to protect our body (skin)from harmful sun rays called Ultraviolet radiation. ￼ Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun can cause chemical changes in our cell tissue which can then lead to skin cancer. Melanin protects the skin by absorbing the harmful Ultraviolet radiation (UV), acting as a sunscreen. It also neutralizes free radicals, which are harmful chemicals that form in the skin after being damaged by ultraviolet radiation. This therefore means, the more melanin we have, the better the UV protection we have against the harmful radiation from the Sun’s rays. Likewise, the amount that we have in our skin determines how light or dark our complexion will be. This means, People with light (fair) skin will have just a little melanin while those with Darker skin will have much more melanin present. For those with yellow skin tone, this is determined by another pigment called carotene, a yellow pigment. A person who spends a lot of time in the sun, their skin will become darker since the melanin in the skin gets more active producing more of this pigment to reduce the harmful UV effects of the sun. This same principle is used in tanning. ￼ How much of this pigment we have is also determined by the genes we inherit. Genes ( short pieces of DNA) are units of information inside the cells of our body. Genes make up the blueprint, or plan, for the human body and its functions. It is therefore through our genes that traits are handed down from parents to offspring, in a process called heredity. In other words, this is what is responsible for our genetic makeup (genotype).**

Resources: Encyclopedia Of Questions and Answers, http://www.mastertanning.com/tips/25/tanning-process/, http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2005/09/why-do-people-have-different-colors-of.html Go back to Maddie page.