Science Confirms: Santa Real
Carp Christmas! Nanophotonic Christmas! Fire Christmas! Pepper Christmas! Vitamin Christmas! Gene Christmas! Campus Christmas! Computer Christmas! And the all important Christmas Christmas! It's your Christmas Science Watch, where we watch science—it's almost Christmas!
- What to do about Asian carp? Why not give them as stocking stuffers?
- Are you ready for teams of robo-farmers taking over farming from humans with their robotic ways? Sure, as long as it gives you more time to decorate the tree.
- Yes, we can now use nanophotonics to look inside living cells. But can we use it to look inside Santa's workshop? No, that's private.
- There are fewer fires on the African savannas these days. Why? Maybe you should aim that question up the chimney, my friend.
- There's a cost to plants that grow hot chile peppers: they need to drink a lot of water. Just like reindeer.
- A NASA spacecraft has beamed back thousands of stunning new photos of the asteroid Vesta. Hey, is that a sleigh in the background? That's odd.
- The good news is Vitamin D prevents fractures. The bad news is that its role in cancer is unclear. The other new is that there's little Vitamin D in Christmas cookies.
- Some dormant genes need a wake-up call, unlike kids on Christmas morning.
- So, a big new science campus is coming to New York City. It wants a Big Wheels, a Nintendo, and several different G.I. Joes.
- Is computer science really that important? Yes. But not as important as egg nog.
- Santa Claus—is he really real? Science says: absolutely.
