Australia's Courier Mail reported a while back that redheads will sooner or later become nonexistent. This is disturbing to me as my mother, brother, sister, wife and I were all born redheads. My three children also have red hair.

Other news outlets and blogs picked up the story, claiming that the Scotland Genetic Center, which was supposedly made up of some of the worlds top genetic scientists, had predicted there will be very few redheads walking the face of the earth in 2050. Additional media picked up the story and reported that by the year 2800, redheads will be extinct. National Geographic magazine reported that less than 2 percent of the world population is red-haired now and global warming may be causing the loss of this trait in humans.

Many scientists have since raised suspicions about the redhead extermination theory, whichmost likely stems from a misunderstanding about a mutation that causes a recessive gene and natural selection. A mutation is a change in a gene that causes changes significant enough to make a change in an organism (like red hair). Natural selection occurs when only the organisms best adapted to their environment survive and transmit their genetic characteristics to succeeding generations. Mutations can cause natural selection but mutations could have a positive, negative or neutral effect. Mutations occur all the time, in every species.

According to legend, redheads have quick tempers. (This really ticks me off!) Some people think that redheads should respond to nicknames like "Red" or "Carrot Top." In some cultures, the term "redhead" is synonymous with stubbornness or even intellectual impairment.

Red hair was produced by a genetic mutation in the northern part of Europe thousands of years ago. The gene had the positive effect of enhancing the bodys capacity for coping with reduced sunlight in the area and helped people to produce more vitamin D in the decreased sunlight. Unfortunately, redheads are also more likely to get skin cancer and they are more susceptible to heat- and cold-related pain. Yes, redheads, like comic book heroes, are mutants, except without the superpowers.

Since the Courier Mail's report in 2007, speculation about natural red hair disappearing has thrived. Personally, I don't think it's true. I'm sure that people with natural red, auburn and copper-colored hair will be born well into the future. Redheads can be produced from a single red-haired parent, or no red-haired parents.

In the United States, it is approximated that 2 to 6 percent of the populace has red hair. This would give the U.S. the biggest population of redheads in the world, 6 to 18 million. Scotland has roughly 650,000 redheads and Ireland has about 420,000.

Having red hair has not always been easy. Over the centuries, civilizations have acted in a brutal manner toward red-haired people, from deeming them unlucky and sacrificing them to stop the bad luck, to condemning them as witches and setting them on fire. In my youth, bright red hair and freckles made children the target of school yard bullying. I can't write what specifically was once said to me, because this is a family newspaper, but it involved my mother and a rusty pipe.

Red hair is rare, but I'm guessing that there is no real basis to the claim that redheads are going the way of dinosaurs. Which is great, because, whether you have red hair or not, the tones of red, auburn and burnt orange are beautiful to see.

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Long live beautiful redheads - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal