Many years, around Christmas, bright new explanations appear as to why reindeer noses might glow.”Glow” is a word from the song “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” but the general discussion centers on the possible redness—be it glowing or be it subdued, be it observed or be it imagined—of a reindeer’s nose. A new article in […]
Tag: reindeer
Celebrating Norway’s Ig Nobel Prize winners, and others, too
The Schrödingers katt science TV program celebrated some of Norway’s Ig Nobel Prize winners — and several other Ig Nobel Prize winners, too. They also interviewed me. Click on the image below, to be whisked to the Schrödingers katt web site and watch the entire episode: The featured Norwegian winners include: The 2014 Ig Nobel Prize for arctic science, awarded to Eigil Reimers and Sindre […]
Twin peeks into Rudolph’s red nose (and hindquarters)
Two studies, both published in December 2012, dig into the nature of Rudolph’s red nose. Each study found a scientific surprise in the microcirculation of the reindeer’s nasal mucosa. One paper is: “Microcirculatory investigations of nasal mucosa in reindeer Rangifer tarandus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae): Rudolph’s nose was overheated,” Ben van der Hoven, Eva Klijn, Michel van Genderen, […]
Physiology: Why Rudolph’s Nose is Red
A new Dutch study explains the likely physiology of Rudolph the reindeer’s red nose: “Microcirculatory investigations of nasal mucosa in reindeer Rangifer tarandus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae): Rudolph’s nose was overheated,” Ben van der Hoven, Eva Klijn, Michel van Genderen, Willem Schaftenaar, Lisette L. de Vogel, Ditty van Duijn and Erwin J.O. Kompanje (a member of the […]
Genghis Kahn (and reindeer eunuchs)
It’s been a big week for educated speculation about climate influences. As mentioned yesterday, castrating additional reindeer by chewing off their testicles just might be a small but gleaming key to slowing climate change. Now comes word from the Carnegie Institution for Science that “Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes had an impact on the […]
Climate change and castration
Lead Sentence of the Week honors go to Alister Doyle of Reuters, whose news report begins: Indigenous Sami peoples in the Arctic may have found a way to help their reindeer herds cope with climate change: more castration. (Thanks to investigator John Karp for bringing this to our attention.) Further detail appears in a pair […]