Scientists reveal how Rudolph’s nose glowed, Scrooge travelled in time and Grinch’s heart grew

Christmas is the most magical time of the year, and the romance of the season has inspired countless beloved tales.

These include the stories of Rudolph, the little reindeer with a glowing nose, and the mean Grinch whose heart grew by three sizes.  

Charles Dickens also wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’, where bitter, old Ebenezer Scrooge travels in time to learn the error of his ways, and become a kinder person.

But are these stories really all make believe? Experts at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Maryland reveal how these phenomena could be scientifically possible.

How did Rudolph’s nose glow?

The story of Rudolph, a reindeer born with bright red nose, was first printed in 1939 as a book for American retailer Montgomery Ward.

It goes that the little buck was mocked by his peers for his unusual snout, until one foggy Christmas Eve he was chosen by Santa to guide his sleigh.

His nose lit the way while presents were delivered, and he was popular thereafter, both with other reindeer and with Christmas lovers across the world.

Real reindeer, who live in areas of Arctic tundra across the world, have light pink noses that are usually completely covered in light brown or white fuzz.

Like other mammals, the nose is made up of cartilage and bone, but has a particularly large internal surface area so it can efficiently warm up the cold air that enters. 

Densely packed blood vessels keep the nose richly supplied with red blood cells which help to protect it from freezing and to regulate brain temperature, and may also result in a pinkish hue. 

While there has yet to be any real-life evidence of a glowing reindeer snout, Dr Steve Farber from JHU says that it is not totally out of the question.

He said: ‘The key to understanding Rudolph’s nose is to know that there are many animals on the planet that have bioluminescent or fluorescent parts to them. 

‘Anthozoan corals, jellyfish or the most famous in North America would be the firefly. 

‘There are flies that have green spots and there’s even some that have dark red spots.’

Bioluminescent cells produce two chemicals — a molecule called luciferin and an enzyme called luciferase. 

When combined, the enzyme catalyses a reaction on the luciferin, resulting in a bright flash that can last up to around 100 milliseconds.

While many sea creatures are bioluminescent, as it stands there is only one terrestrial creature that produces red light in a bioluminescence reaction – the railroad worm. 

This worm has luminescent organs all over its body, which all produce different coloured light.

Only the two in its head produce red light, because the luciferase enzymes in them are not as repelled by luciferin as those elsewhere in its body.

This means that when the molecule and enzyme react, they emit lower energy red light, as opposed to higher energy yellow or orange light. 

If a genetic mutation occurred when Rudolph was born, the cells in his nose could theoretically produce the same form of luciferin and luciferase molecules as those in the worm’s head, allowing it to shine bright red!

How did Scrooge travel in time?

‘A Christmas Carol’ was written in 1843, and tells the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a mean-spirited elderly man living in Victorian London.

He is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, who show him the consequences of his actions by taking him backwards and forwards in time.

The concept of time travel has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years, but so far it appears that no one has succeeded in creating an illusive time machine.

Nevertheless, physicist Dr Ibrahima Bah says that travelling to the future is already possible, you just have to be really quick.

He said: ‘Going forward in time is physically possible. It uses a trick in special relativity that the clock that you measure is relative to your frame. 

‘All you have to do is move at incredibly high speeds then you can go forward in time and meet people in the future.’

The theory is based on Einstein’s Theory of Special Relatively, which states that in order to travel forward in time, an object would need to reach speeds close to the speed of light.

As an object approaches these speeds, time slows down but only for that specific object travelling.

For example, people flying over the Atlantic will experience time passing marginally slower than people on the ground.

This was famously proven in the Hafele-Keating experiment in 1971, when scientists took four atomic clocks around the world twice on commercial flights, once going eastward and once going westward.

After the flights, they found that the clocks showed times different than those stationed at the US Naval Observatory by a number of nanoseconds predicted by Einstein’s theory.

Going back in time isn’t quite so straightforward, and has yet to be achieved.

Dr Ibrahima said: ‘In order to go backwards in time, you have to figure out how to make a loop in space-time.’

Einstein said that the force of gravity is described as a curvature, or warping, of space-time.

The more mass we squeeze into a region of space, the more space-time is warped and the slower nearby clocks tick. 

If we squeeze in enough mass, spacetime becomes so warped that even light cannot escape its gravitational pull, and a black hole is formed. 

So if you were to approach the edge of the black hole – its event horizon – your clock would tick infinitely slowly relative to those far away from it.

With enough gravity, in theory, the curving of space-time could form a loop with itself – a wormhole.

Each end would be located at a different point in space-time, which could be different spatial locations, different points in time, or both.

However, a problem with using wormholes to travel in space or time is that they are inherently unstable. 

When a particle enters a wormhole, it also creates fluctuations that cause the structure to collapse in on it.

One way they could be stabilised would be by using negative mass with negative energy, where gravity would be a repulsive force rather than attractive.

Unfortunately for Scrooge, and anyone else in need of life lessons, many physicists believe that this isn’t possible in the real world.

How did the Grinch’s heart grow by three sizes?

‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ is a 1957 book by Dr Seuss that tells the story of a grumpy creature called the Grinch with a heart ‘two sizes too small’.

He tries to cancel Christmas by stealing the presents and decorations of nearby villagers on Christmas Eve.

When he takes them to the top of a mountain ready to throw them into an abyss as dawn breaks, he is surprised to not hear any of the villagers crying.

The Grinch’s heart then grows by ‘three sizes’ as he realises Christmas means more than just gifts, and he returns all that he stole to join in the celebrations.

Dr David Kass is a cardiologist at JHU and says that, in humans, an enlarged heart can be a sign of heart failure, as the organ is working extra hard to pump blood around.

This could be the result of a ruptured valve, which wouldn’t leave you feeling too merry. 

He said: ‘Heart failure patients often have very large hearts. 

‘You’re going to feel weak, you’re going to feel pretty lousy, you’re going to be short of breath. 

‘You’re not going to be handing out lots of presents and you know being cheerful.’

Therefore, Dr Kass has another theory – that the Grinch is actually part python, as their hearts ‘get really large to help them digest food’.

In 2005, researchers at the University of California, Irvine discovered that Burmese pythons experience a 40 per cent increase in heart muscle mass within 48 hours of feeding.

This means that blood is pumped around its body faster, helping it to ‘meet metabolic demands’ of digesting the large meal, before shrinking it back down again.

Plus, the Grinch is ‘a snakey like guy’, according to Dr Kass.