The science of Santa
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As news breaks that archaeologists have found the tomb of St Nick in Turkey, we check in on the North Pole Father Christmas, and fact-check his present giving schedule with advanced level physics and a Gant chart.
Plus, prepare for stories of reindeers high... despite their apparent immunity to their favourite hallucinogenic mushroom treats. And we burrow into Santa’s iconic beard to find any microbial magic that lives there.
And yet more reindeer magic, this time the mysteries of their amazing body clocks, which they seem to be able to switch on and off at will... AND we reveal Rudolf the red nose reindeer’s big secret. You’ll never hear that song in the same way again
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Phillys Mwatee and Camilla Mota Producers: Emily Knight, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell and William Hornbrook Sound engineer: Searle Whittney
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio, everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start |
| 0:29.2 | with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC |
| 0:33.7 | Sounds. This weekend, I bought a Christmas tree. |
| 0:40.1 | Don't get anything larger than five foot, instructed my flatmate. |
| 0:44.2 | But when I was out at the market, all the small trees seemed, well, a bit small. |
| 0:49.5 | The tree I picked, which needed both of us and a bicycle to bring home, |
| 0:55.9 | is merrily sat in the corner of the front room, smelling of resin and looking like a gaudily dressed totem to the holiday |
| 1:01.3 | spirits. It is, by my calculations, at least seven foot tall. I have not pointed that |
| 1:08.1 | out to my flatmate. I'm Marnie Chesterton from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:13.0 | This is Unexpected Elements. |
| 1:21.7 | And with me to spread some festive science cheers today, |
| 1:25.8 | we have from Nairobi Kenya science broad, Phyllis Mwate. |
| 1:30.1 | Hello, Phyllis. Hello, Manny. Hujambo. And all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil, it's Camilla Mota. Hello. |
| 1:37.6 | Oi, Mani, Feliz Natal. Merry Christmas. |
| 1:40.3 | Now, in the northern hemisphere, the 21st of December is the darkest day of the year for us. |
| 1:47.1 | Not for you two in Kenya and Brazil, but Britain is pretty dark, so we're going to let the BBC World Service bring you a little light and warmth with more than a strong hint of science to it, because unexpected elements is the show inspired by the headlines. |
| 2:04.0 | And the whole thing kicks off with one news story. |
... |
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