BMJ's Christmas issue, where scientists show off a sense of humor

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Ho, ho, ho!  It’s Christmas, the time of year that brings us desiccated fruitcake, weeks of incessantly cheery holiday music, and creepy old men in red suits. Luckily for us, December also brings us the annual Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, which is probably the most fun you can have reading a scientific journal all year. Here’s a short round-up of some of the wackiest articles from this issue.

Sing a carol, learn some science

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer may have saved Christmas on that infamous foggy night, but it wasn’t until recently that scientists figured out the secret behind his shiny nose.  A group of Dutch and Norwegian researchers tested hypotheses about “the luminous red nose of Rudolph,” and found that reindeer noses are tightly packed with capillaries to deliver a constant supply of red blood cells.

The authors suggest that this complex microcirculatory system—which is 25 percent more dense than that of a human nose—keeps reindeers’ noses from freezing in frigid weather and may help regulate brain temperature. Rudolph’s nose, they write, may be red because it “is anatomically and physiologically adapted for reindeer to carry out their flying duties for Santa Claus.”