WEBVTT - Why Does Rudolph's Nose Glow Red? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.120 Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.600 Lauren vog obam here It's no wonder. Rudolph the red 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.240 nosed reindeer is the most famous member of Santa's team. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.320 On top of being a skilled flyer, his nose, as 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.040 his name suggests, glows bright red. This unusual variation on 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.040 the reindeer nasal prominence could have all kinds of benefits, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.040 the most important of which, of course, involves guiding Santa's sleigh. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.800 According to folklore, if the weather's ever bad on Christmas Eve, 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.560 Santa is still cleared for flight by the f A, 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.520 a no less thanks to the brightness of Rudolph's nose. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.480 But how does Rudolph's nose actually work? How could one 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.160 reindeer create a light bright enough to lead a sleigh 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.320 through darkness and inclement weather? And how can a reindeer 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.959 actually develop a glowing red nose. Although no one may 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.840 ever know for sure just how Rudolph got his unusual nose, 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.080 we at how Stuff works have what we think is 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.440 the most logical explanation for how this dough idear guides 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.720 Santa's lay science Rudolph could use something many organisms use 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.399 on Earth, in order to create natural light a neat 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.319 little scientific trick called bioluminescence. Animals can make their own 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.720 light by mixing certain chemical compounds together to produce a glow. 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.600 The reasons vary. Fireflies, for instance, flashlight at each other 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.560 in order to attract mats, while some fish that live 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.959 very deep in the ocean use light to bait prey. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.000 If this is the case with Rudolph, there would be 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.160 three parts to his nasal beacon. The first would be 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.720 just like any other reindeer nose, and so it's playmates 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.200 technically shouldn't have shunned him from any reindeer games in 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.320 the first place. He would, you know, breathe oxygen through it, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.760 and the tissue would be made up of two layers, 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.559 the dermis, which is the thick inner layer of skin 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.160 that contains blood, vessels and hair follicles, and the epidermist, 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.400 which is the thin outer layer that you can see 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.880 and touch. The other two parts, however, would set Rootolf 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.480 apart from all the other reindeer. The second part would 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.600 be a thin, enclosed layer of a light using organ 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.280 between the dermis and the epidermis. Inside this layer could 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.079 be the compound lucifer in, which produces light, and lucifer race, 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.480 which is an enzyme that catalyzes the light producing reaction. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.160 So that's your glow. The third part is where the 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.720 red nosed comes in. Most bioluminescent life forms like fireflies 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.680 produce greenish light. The outermost part of Rudolph's nose, therefore, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.040 would have to be a red phosphorescent layer. Once the 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.400 light producing organs started putting off green light, the phosphorescent 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.560 part of his nose would absorb that green light and 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.800 emit a red light. How does nose get so bright? Though? 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.079 Bioluminescence often requires another substance like oxygen to make light, 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.359 and Rudolph would breathe lots of oxygen right near the 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.760 light producing organs, providing enough reactions for long, intensely shiny 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.840 bursts of light. But why is Rudolph the only reindeer 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.320 with a nose that glows? How could something like this 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.480 have happened? Could Santa be some kind of mad scientist 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.639 tweaking reindeer DNA for his own benefit, or could Rudolph's 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.880 nose be a biological accident. It's possible that Rudolph's bright 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.680 honker could be a reindeer ativism. Let's break that down. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.959 An atavism is a trait of distant ancestors that randomly 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.520 pops up in modern day organisms, like a human with 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.440 a tail. This trait may have served a purpose for 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.080 the animal way back when, but for whatever reason, that 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.880 trait was silenced over time, every once in a while, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.280 making a rare return. Could distant reindeer ancestors of Rudolph 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.519 have needed to produce light in order to survive in 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.000 the wild. You'll find most reindeer in Scandinavia, and it 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.920 does get pretty dark there during the winter, so maybe 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.720 Rudolph's ancestors needed a better way to get around at night. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.080 Oh and although Rudolph is what's called a bull male reindeer, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.120 there's a rumor that many of Santa's reindeer might be 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.040 cows or female reindeer. And that's because Santa's reindeer are 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.320 depicted flying on Christmas Eve with fully grown antlers. Male 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.600 reindeer typically shed their antlers by early December, well before 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.120 Christmas Eve. The antlers grow back in the spring and 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.440 the cycle of growth and regrowth continues, but cows keep 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.800 their antlers all year long. This isn't to say that 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.880 all of the other reindeer are female. Most males shed 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.280 their antlers, but not all of them, and it's possible 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.560 that a bowl won't lose as antlers until after December. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.080 Today's episode was written by John Fuller and produced by 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.520 Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.800 Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.280 of other very shiny topics, visit our home planet, how 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.760 stuff Works dot com, and for more podcasts for my 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.680 heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.400 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.