WEBVTT - Why Does Rudolph's Nose Glow Red?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.920
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey,

0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:11.280
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. It's no wonder that

0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.680
<v Speaker 1>Rudolph is the most famous reindeer of all. In addition

0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.840
<v Speaker 1>to being a skilled flyer, his nose glows bright red.

0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.640
<v Speaker 1>This unusual variation on the reindeer nasal prominence has all

0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.520
<v Speaker 1>kinds of benefits. If the weather is ever bad on

0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.600
<v Speaker 1>Christmas Eve, Santa is still cleared for flight by the

0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.519
<v Speaker 1>US Federal Aviation Administration, among others, thanks to the brightness

0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:37.000
<v Speaker 1>of Rudolph's nose. But how does Rudolph's nose actually work?

0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.280
<v Speaker 1>How can one reindeer create a light bright enough to

0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.919
<v Speaker 1>bleed us Leigh through darkness and inclement weather, And how

0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.199
<v Speaker 1>can a reindeer even have a glowing red nose in

0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.920
<v Speaker 1>the first place. Although no one may ever know for

0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.280
<v Speaker 1>sure just how Rudolph got his unusual nose, we think

0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:58.959
<v Speaker 1>the most logical explanation is, of course science. A Rudolph

0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.240
<v Speaker 1>could use something many organisms use on Earth in order

0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.959
<v Speaker 1>to create natural light, a neat trick called bioluminescence. In

0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.680
<v Speaker 1>luminescent animals and fungi chemical compounds mixed together to produce

0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.720
<v Speaker 1>a glow. It's a lot like the way that substances

0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.840
<v Speaker 1>inside a light stick combined to make light. The reasons vary.

0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.399
<v Speaker 1>Of fireflies, for instance, flashlight at each other to communicate

0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.080
<v Speaker 1>and attract mates, while some animals that live very deep

0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.040
<v Speaker 1>in the ocean use light to attract or spot prey,

0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.280
<v Speaker 1>or to confuse and escape from predators. In some parts

0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.000
<v Speaker 1>of the ocean, these animals, not the sun, are the

0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.880
<v Speaker 1>primary source of light. So let's talk about the parts

0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.600
<v Speaker 1>of Rudolph's nose. It starts just like any other reindeer nose.

0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.080
<v Speaker 1>He breeds oxygen through it, and it's made up of

0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.240
<v Speaker 1>two layers of skin, the dermis, which is the thick

0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.520
<v Speaker 1>inner layer of skin that contains blood vessels and hair follicles,

0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.880
<v Speaker 1>and the epidermis, which is the thin outer layer that

0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.840
<v Speaker 1>you can see and touch. A couple of extras, however,

0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.320
<v Speaker 1>would set Rudolf apart from all the other reindeer, though

0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.240
<v Speaker 1>of course there's no scientific basis for them excluding him

0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.280
<v Speaker 1>from their gains. It seems most likely that Rudolph additionally

0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.560
<v Speaker 1>has a thin, enclosed layer of a light producing organ

0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:20.560
<v Speaker 1>between the dermis and the epidermis. In general, bioluminescence involves

0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:25.320
<v Speaker 1>the combination of two types of substances. One is a luciferin,

0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.120
<v Speaker 1>or a light producing substance. The other is a lucifer race,

0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:34.760
<v Speaker 1>or an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction. The terms luciferin

0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.760
<v Speaker 1>and lucifer race of both come from the Latin term

0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.480
<v Speaker 1>lucifer which means light bringer and is also the basis

0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.960
<v Speaker 1>for the name lucifer in the Bible and folklore, but

0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.760
<v Speaker 1>luciferin and luciferase are generic terms rather than the names

0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.400
<v Speaker 1>of particular chemicals. Lots of different substances can act like

0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.080
<v Speaker 1>lucifer ins and lucifer races, depending on the species of

0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.840
<v Speaker 1>the bioluminescent liform. For example, some luciferens are to chlorophyll,

0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.200
<v Speaker 1>while others seem to be manufactured from the food that

0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.960
<v Speaker 1>the animal eats. In the organism, something triggers the reaction,

0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.720
<v Speaker 1>maybe a neurological process, maybe a chemical shift. Okay, So

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.320
<v Speaker 1>in Rudolph's case, there's a layer in his nose where

0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.840
<v Speaker 1>these substances occur and can combine, thus putting out photons

0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:28.919
<v Speaker 1>of light. But bioluminescent light forms pretty exclusively produce blue

0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:34.440
<v Speaker 1>green light. So how is Rudolph's nose red. There is

0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.120
<v Speaker 1>a type of deep sea fish known as a stop

0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.360
<v Speaker 1>light loose jaw that can glow red even though the

0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.560
<v Speaker 1>light that it produces starts out greenish blue. What's going

0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.800
<v Speaker 1>on there is that it's bioluminescent organ also contains a

0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.800
<v Speaker 1>type of protein that can absorb that light and then

0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:56.160
<v Speaker 1>fluoresce in red. Rudolph must have a similar thing, and

0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.960
<v Speaker 1>Rudolph's nose is likely able to get so bright because

0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.280
<v Speaker 1>of a sort of secret ingredient that we haven't talked

0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.880
<v Speaker 1>about yet. A bioluminescence often requires another substance, like oxygen,

0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.240
<v Speaker 1>in order to make light, and because Rudolph produces light

0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.760
<v Speaker 1>in his nose, it only makes sense that his nose

0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.400
<v Speaker 1>would shine intensely because as he breathes in oxygen, it

0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.560
<v Speaker 1>creates plenty of opportunity for the reaction to happen and

0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.640
<v Speaker 1>light to be produced. So we know that Rudolph stands

0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.159
<v Speaker 1>out a bit from other reindeer, But how could he

0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.520
<v Speaker 1>be the only reindeer with this big, glowing nose. It's

0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.880
<v Speaker 1>possible that Rudolph's glowing honker could be a reindeer ativism,

0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.440
<v Speaker 1>and ativism is a trait of distant ancestors that randomly

0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.479
<v Speaker 1>pops up in modern day organisms, unlike a human with

0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.920
<v Speaker 1>a tail. These traits may have served a purpose for

0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.039
<v Speaker 1>the animal way back when, but for whatever reason, the

0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.120
<v Speaker 1>trait was silenced over time and only makes rare triumphant

0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:59.280
<v Speaker 1>returns in modern times. Perhaps distant reindeer ancestors of Rudolph's

0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.479
<v Speaker 1>produced light to survive in the wild. You'll find most

0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.479
<v Speaker 1>reindeer in Scandinavia, and it does get pretty dark there

0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.839
<v Speaker 1>during the long winter nights, so perhaps some of Rudolph's

0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.520
<v Speaker 1>ancestors required a better way to get around at night.

0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.080
<v Speaker 1>The genetic trait may have popped back up randomly and

0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.040
<v Speaker 1>Rudolph or was perhaps the result of rapid evolution, in

0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.880
<v Speaker 1>which a species could adapt in just a few generations

0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.160
<v Speaker 1>based on the animal's needs. For example, there are mosquitoes

0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.120
<v Speaker 1>living in the London underground that only moved in there

0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.120
<v Speaker 1>in the eighteen sixties, but are now so different from

0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.120
<v Speaker 1>there above ground cousins that they can't reproduce with each other.

0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.320
<v Speaker 1>So maybe Rudolph's parents and grandparents had very bad eyesight

0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.039
<v Speaker 1>and rapid evolution came to the recipe to help compensate

0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:53.080
<v Speaker 1>and saving Christmas was just a lucky accident. Today's episode

0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.840
<v Speaker 1>is based on the article why is Rudolph's Nose Red?

0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.599
<v Speaker 1>On housetop works dot com written by John Fuller, with

0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.919
<v Speaker 1>additional material from the article how by Luminescence Works written

0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.120
<v Speaker 1>by Tracey Vie Wilson. Brain Stuff is production by Heart

0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.440
<v Speaker 1>Radio and partnership with how stuffworks dot com and is

0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.320
<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart

0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.160
<v Speaker 1>Radio because the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:14.920
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.