The colour of one's eye may be the key to success.

American scientists who conducted some tests concluded that brown-eyed people performed better at reaction time, but those with lighter or blue eyes appeared to be better strategic thinkers, the Daily Mail reported.

Brown-eyed people succeeded in activities such as football and hockey, but lighter-eyed particpants proved to be more successful in activities that required skills in time structuring and planning such as golf, cross-country running and studying for exams, the scientists said.

Louisville University professor Joanna Rowe, who conducted the tests, said the results suggested an unexplored link bet-ween eye colour and academic achievement.

"It is just observed, rather than explained," she said. "There's no scientific answer yet."

Bedfordshire University senior psychology lecturer Dr Tony Fal-lone, who has also studied eye colour, believed it should be taken more seriously as an indicator of personality and ability.

Among the bright minds who have blue eyes are Stephen Hawking, Alexander Fleming, Marie Curie, Stephen Fry and Lily Cole.

Stephen Hawking, the author of A Brief History Of Time, is Britain's most eminent physicist.

Biologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and Marie Curie was the first twice-honoured Nobel laureate for her pioneering work on radioactivity.

Writer and actor Stephen Fry is notoriously brainy, gaining a scholarship at Cambridge, and model Lily Cole recently secured a slot at King's College in Cambridge after achieving five As in class.