Welcome to my blog on surgery and related sciences. Here I will express views on the art and science of surgery in general. Any comments and thoughts are most welcomed.

Friday 21 December 2012

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Rudolph - probably the best known reindeer in the world - but do you know the other reindeers' names (see below for answer).



Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by RL May.

His spouse's name is 'Clarice', and BBC has made a show on his son "Robbie the Reindeer". His brother "Rusty the Reindeer" appeared in a 2006 TV show in the US.

In 2012 Rudolph appeared as the frontcover of the British Journal of Surgery, albeit in a more anatomical figure than usually seen:
From the BJS front cover, December issue 2012 (photo A Montgomery)



One big question has never been answered over the years though: 

Why is Rudolph's nose red?

The scientific explanation to why Rudolph has a red nose is now clear. A recent research paper in the BMJ has investigated this and found that Rudolph’s nose is red because it is richly supplied with red blood cells, comprises a highly dense microcirculation, and is anatomically and physiologically adapted for reindeer to carry out their flying duties for Santa Claus.


Fig 3 Infrared image of a reindeer’s head after a treadmill test shows the presence of a red nose (arrow, panel A).23 Colours represent different temperatures: blue 15°C, white 19°C, and red 24°C. The dark band is the harness. Real time intravital video microscopy images of reindeer nasal microcirculatory network with hairpin-like (panel B) and related ring-like vasculature (panel C), similar to human nasal microcirculation. Reproduced with permission of the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø -reproduced from BMJ 2012.
from http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e8311


The names of the other 8 reindeers are:

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen.

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