Newsletter #190 - The Science of Christmas (well, sort of) 🧪
Merry Christmas, humanOS friends!
Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever had one of these newsletters go out on Christmas Day. 🤔
In light of that happy coincidence, we decided to take a festive approach to the research this week and examine some studies that are directly relevant to Christmas - albeit with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
This Week's Research Highlights
🎅🏻 Relativity theory explains how Santa Claus can make his deliveries without being detected.
A physicist has arrived at a scientific explanation for how Santa Claus is able to deliver presents without ever being seen or heard. Dr. Katy Sheen, of the University of Exeter, calculated that, in order to deliver gifts to ~700 million children around the world, Santa must travel at about 10 million kilometers per hour to deliver presents to every child expected to celebrate Christmas in 31 hours (taking into account time zones) - perhaps even more depending on how good the children have been. At this speed, he would be moving beyond human hearing range due to the Doppler effect, which would also make him difficult to see on account of the effect of such tremendous speed on light waves. Finally, he and his team of reindeer would shrink in the direction in which they are moving, which would make it easier for him to squeeze through chimneys.
🧠 The anatomical origin of the Christmas spirit has been identified in the brain through fMRI.
Researchers in Denmark recruited 10 healthy people from the Copenhagen area who routinely celebrate Christmas and 10 counterparts living in the same city who have no Christmas traditions. Functional brain scans were performed on participants while they viewed 84 images, some of which were Christmas-themed. The imaging showed five areas of the brain that exhibited greater activation when the Christmas-celebrating subjects were exposed to festive images. These included the left primary motor and premotor cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobule, and bilateral primary somatosensory cortex - notably, regions of the brain that are associated with spirituality. The authors of the study estimate that "millions of people are prone to displaying Christmas spirit deficiencies" and asserted that "accurate localization of the Christmas spirit is a paramount first step in being able to help this group of patients.”
🦠 Visiting in-laws during Christmas influences the composition of the gut microbiota.
Researchers sequenced gut microbiome samples from a group of 28 healthy young volunteers during the holiday season. Samples were collected right before and after Christmas (December 23 and December 27). In participants who were visiting in-laws during the holidays, the researchers observed that there was a significant decrease in all Ruminococcus species.
The Ruminococcaceae genus is typically found to be depleted in individuals diagnosed with major depression, suggesting that the subjects visiting in-laws experienced a shift due to acute stress. Additionally, participants visiting their own family (as opposed to in-laws) showed an increase in microbial diversity, which is associated with better host health.
The researchers conclude, “a larger randomized controlled study is needed to reproduce these findings before we can recognize in-laws as a potential risk factor for the gut microbiota composition and subsequently host health.”
Random Trivia & Weird News
🎄 A real Christmas tree is actually more environmentally friendly than an artificial one.
Somewhat surprisingly (at least to me), artificial Christmas trees appear to result in greater carbon emissions, due to transportation as well as the materials from which they are made. They also cannot be recycled, meaning that they inevitably wind up in a landfill.
In contrast, real trees are generally not shipped as far, and they are biodegradable, meaning that they can give back to the natural world once the holidays are over. We tend to think of cutting down trees as a bad thing, understandably, but harvesting Christmas trees is not associated with deforestation - tree farmers readily replace purchased trees with new seedlings.
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- Jonathan Reisman: Exploring the body’s hidden wonders - from the inside out. Via Science Friday.
- Jim Lutz: Big trees, big benefits. Via Science Friday.
Products We Are Enjoying
Whole Foods Market Limited Edition Frozen Riced Cauliflower Stuffing
I randomly snagged this at the freezer section at Whole Foods, with some skepticism, but I was pleasantly surprised - it is really tasty, and not too cauliflowery if you know what I mean. If you happen to get it yourself, I would recommend following the stovetop instructions so it’s not too watery, and maybe adding a little seasoning.
humanOS Catalog Feature of the Week
Fasting and Health
Here, we highlight our course on fasting and health developed by Jeff Rothschild.
One of the biggest recent trends in nutrition has been intermittent fasting. And of course, there are new studies coming out all the time pointing to intriguing benefits for health, performance, and lifespan. But there are a few different styles of fasting - how do you determine which is best, in general and for you specifically?
In this course, Jeff explains the basic and clinical effects of fasting, plus different fasting protocols and how to implement them in a way that works for your own life. If you want to take a deeper dive into intermittent fasting, this is a great resource. We also suggest looking at our How-to Guide to Fasting if you’re seeking a quick reference sheet on the matter.
Happy holidays, thanks for reading, and we'll see y'all again next week for the first newsletter of 2022 🎉
