Christmas Science

We go all festive in the first of our new section where our girl Leila Sattary climbs atop her soap box and tells it like it is

­It’s that time of year again, the fairy lights are on, the shoppers are out and people are pitching their Christmassy science stories to newspapers.

Every December there is at least one big story relating to the ‘Science of Christmas’ that hits the headlines. Some of these are pitched by scientists trying taking advantage of the season to publish in the mainstream media and raise awareness of their research. Here are some festive science stories from the last few years to warm your cockles so pour yourself a glass of sherry and enjoy my first Lab Rant.

L. S. Copeland, an astronomer of the 20th century, was well known for nicknaming celestial objects - some of his more elaborate names include Tennis Racquet, Flock of Sheep and Flying Eagle. In the December of 2005 the tabloids reported that new images of NGC 2264, aka the Christmas Tree cluster, gave the first ever look at newborn stars while they were still linked to their siblings. These observations from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed the theory that the density and temperature of an initial star-forming cloud determines the spacing between newborn stars. Young stars show up as pink and red specks, or fairy-lights if you must, on the Christmas Tree cluster. The cluster was first catalogued by William Herschel in 1784 but was festively dubbed much later by Copeland due to its triangular shape.

Also in 2005, the ‘DNA search for Father Christmas’ hit the headlines. A team of scientists from DNA analysis company Oxford Ancestors, appealed for male volunteers to participate in a study to find out if all people with Christmas as their surname descended from a single ‘father’ Christmas. Every man has a Y-chromosome which can only be inherited from his father which allows DNA analysis to track back genetic heritage. Generally, the rarer the name, the more likely it is to have one original ancestor. Oxford Ancestors are due to release their findings this year.

In 2006, some researchers picked December to publish their research on Boswellia trees, which are the source of frankincense. The media claimed that if Jesus was born today, the three wise men would have to find an alternative gift to frankincense (perhaps Hugo Boss?). However, the high rates of tapping of frankincense from Boswellia trees is a serious ecological issue - the trees are now producing less seeds and failing to regenerate. The study was the first to show the fragile relationship between extracting wood exudates and tree regeneration.

I covered a story for Laboratory News in 2007 about the mathematical formula which would allow you to wrap your Christmas presents with the least amount of wrapping paper. This study, taken on by a PhD student from the University of Leicester, was sponsored by Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent who used the University’s profile and the media coverage to get more shoppers in their doors and to promote their wrapping service. The project had huge potential for public engagement – learn something about maths and geometry while you wait for your gift wrapping and ultimately waste less paper. However, the formula provided for Bluewater basically stated the paper should be the size of the surface area plus 2cm for an overlap. The study itself went into much more detail about optimal wrapping methods for unusual shaped objects. Bluewater said that they hope “by using this formula Bluewater shoppers can make an effort to become as green as their Christmas tree.”

The Christmas Tree star cluster and Boswellia tree stories are great examples of how the festive season can be used to get coverage of sound science stories that otherwise would never had hit the headlines. To get mainstream media coverage you need to think like a journalist – its all about capturing imaginations, headlines and images. On the other hand, Oxford Ancestors, as a commercial company, may be purely running the whole Father Christmas study as an advertising campaign. Who knows, they would give away any information, least the results of their big study, ahead of the big press release they are planning this December in time to hit the festive headlines. The optimal Christmas wrapping research might have been intended to be serious but it seems that the shopping centre got some accreditation, media coverage and an environmental thumbs up and the student pocketed a nice Christmas bonus for providing the formula for the area of a cuboid.

So keep an eye out for Christmassy science stories this season – perhaps it might be the formula for the perfect shaped Christmas tree, tastiest cranberry sauce, or ideal volume of sherry consumption to enable maximum merriment with minimal Boxing Day hangover.