The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
Surveying a range of scientific fields' answers to Christmas puzzlers, the author argues that, among other things, Rudolph's red nose stems from a parasitical infection, the star of Bethlehem may have been the conjunction of planets, and Santa relies on a superconducting quantum interference device to interpret the magnetic brainwaves of bad and good children. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.