Could Rudolf the red nose reindeer exist?

     Image source: roogi - cc                    

                                           

Rudolf may not actually exists.

However if he did, it is quite possible that he may have had a red shiny nose - according to a study done in Norway and the Netherlands, published in BMJ, 17 December 2012
(BMJ 2012;345:e8311)




This study involved:

• 5 healthy adult volunteers
• 2 reindeers
• 1 patient with nasal polyps

Thanks to the invention of hand-held intravital video microscopy, the authors were able to visualize the microcirculation in the nose, and concluded that "the microcirculation of the nasal mucosa in reindeer is richly vascularized and 25% denser than that in humans."

The increased vascularization (with red blood cells within the vessels) offers the explanation to the reindeer's red shiny nose.


Hence ends the centuries of myth behind the legend. And we can now all sleep peacefully, knowing that there's a good reason behind Rudolf's red shiny nose.