To understand freckles, we need to learn a little bit about melanin

Hi, Kids,

This is Professor Mordy Maven, Thinker, Wonderer, and Figure-Outer of all things Science-ish. What that basically means is that I try really hard to figure out all the hard stuff, so you don’t have to!

Ah, there’s nothing like summertime. Every day is full of surprises! I must tell you about the surprise that happened when I met my friend Effy from England. We’ve been friends for a couple of years now, but I’ve only ever seen Effy when he flew in to visit his grandparents during midwinter vacation. He’s got red hair, green eyes and smooth white skin. And a great accent, too. I can’t forget that. But this year, when Effy flew in during the summer to visit, I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Same red hair. Same green eyes. Same piece of spinach stuck between his two front teeth. But his skin… it was polka-dotted!

Good friend that I am,  I took my little finger and tried to rub them off. What do you know, they wouldn’t budge an inch. It seemed like those dots were actually attached to Effy’s skin and I thought that was incredibly interesting. Imagine being able to have patterns on your skin! Is this something they only do in England? I wondered, could this happen to me? Or might I become striped or checkered?

It turns out that Effy has a serious case of ephelides. Yup, you heard me. Ephelides. I know it sounds scary but don’t worry. Ephelides comes from ancient Greek and is translated to mean, “rough spots on the face.” But they aren’t rough at all. They’re actually smooth brown dots. You see, ephelides is actually just a fancy name for freckles.