Rudolph’s glowing nose explained by science in fun video

Rudolph’s glowing nose explained by science in fun online video

Ever wondered how Father Christmas gets around the whole world in one night? Why no one sees him delivering presents? How he fits down the chimney? Or how the nose of Santa’s trusted navigator, Rudolph, came to glow?

An Auckland Professor is helping keep the magic of Christmas alive, by explaining some of the unanswered mysteries of Father Christmas’ good work in an entertaining online video.

Professor Steve Pointing, Director of AUT University’s Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, has created a short video for children and big kids at heart around the world. In The Science of Christmas, he and colleague Professor Allan Blackman use modern science to answer four often asked questions about Santa’s exploits in the lead-up to Christmas Day.

The light-hearted video draws on scientific truths and recent discoveries to offer some answers. “The video is a bit quirky, but is inspired by real science achievements. All four scientific principles in the video have featured in the news this year,” says Professor Pointing.

Asked how the idea for the video came about, Professor Pointing says, “I’m just a big kid! Now I have my own child who loves Christmas, and he’s curious about how it’s possible for Santa to do it all.”

He hopes the video will add to the excitement of Christmas, and help make Christmas and science fun. “Science can enrich our experiences of daily life,” he says. “I’m really interested in fostering children’s interest in science and their understanding of how science impacts our lives – be it what’s happening when we get a cold, the jug boils, or when we see a piece of seaweed wash up on the beach.”

Professor Pointing had a similarly creative introduction to science. It was after reading Jacques Cousteau’s The Silent World as a young boy that he discovered his passion for science, which became a refuge from a childhood of bullying. “Science was an opportunity to escape people,” he says.

However his ambitions today are quite the opposite. Professor Pointing is now enthusiastic about sharing science with the world, by communicating scientific advances and building an appreciation for science. “I want to be able to look back on what I’ve achieved and know that I’ve created an audience for science that didn’t previously exist,” he says.

As he says in the video, “Science is really important in helping us understand everything about the world around us.”

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v26roTmutjw.

ENDS.

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