Why We Blush!

An evolutionary enigma!

- Maharaaj K. Koul

Believe it or not, when your face blushes, the lining of your stomach turns red, too!

Researchers at St Andrews University, Scotland, made people suck babies’ bottles and sing in front of strangers in August 2008 in a bid to find out exactly what it is that makes us blush. In a three-year study, the scientists examined the group dimensions of embarrassment, determining whether or not the company we are in makes us feel more flustered.

And, to mark the 200th anniversary of the great naturalist Charles Darwin in 2009, the New Scientist magazine asked some of the leading biologists of the world to name the biggest gaps in evolutionary theory. “Blushing is the biggest gap in evolutionary theory,” suggested Dr Frans de Waal, a leading expert in primate behaviour at Emory University, Georgia, US. He admits the riddle why people go red in the face when they are embarrassed is still difficult to explain.

Scientists are red-faced as they admit that, while everyone does it, blushing remains one of the biggest gaps in evolutionary theory. So, blushing continues to remain one of the last riddles in human development.