Can a red-nosed reindeer exist? Science says yes

Holy glowing genes, Rudolph!

If we didn’t already know that Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was special, that shiny proboscis of his could have resulted from the one-ina-million transfer of genetic material from a brilliant colored coral found in the Red Sea.

Perhaps it entered his mother’s bloodstream when she scraped against the coral during a crash water landing while pregnant with Rudolph and then the DNA was passed to her unborn calf.

At least that’s what a smart scientist from the Johns Hopkins University speculated might explain the nose so bright that guided Santa and his sleigh full of toys for good girls and boys on that famous foggy Christmas Eve.

“Mobile genetic elements,” said Steve Farber, principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution for Science and a Hopkins biology professor, “are derived from viruses and have the amazing ability to cut and insert chunks of DNA into the genome of its host.”

With a fist full of scientific journals and a wink, Farber joined two other top scientists from the university in offering explanations for Rudolph’s nose, the Grinch’s enlarged heart and Ebenezer Scrooge’s time travel.

While most children and probably most of their parents accept the beloved holiday creatures as they are, scientists want us to understand the world around us, even if it’s in a cherished Christmas storybook. Scientists tend to look to peer-reviewed studies first to see if there is some solid explanation for what they’ve witnessed, or they craft their own trials, Farber said.

But launching the kind of largescale rigorous studies most valued in science might be impossible with characters as unique as the Grinch and Scrooge.

Rudolph, however, might be as easy as a genetic test to identify the coral DNA. And his offspring would carry the genetic rearrangements containing it as well.

This time of year, it also might be tough to even schedule exams with the original trio, who are likely deep in the holiday crush in the North Pole, Whoville and 19th century London.