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| So you're into sci fi? But what about sci fact? Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction... Each month our very own Voyager Science Queen* will bring you interesting, quirky and downright bizarre tasty morsels from the world of science. And its all completely, totally, 100% true! December Sci-Facts |
| Well, here we all are again, at the end of another year. This has been a mixed bag of a year for me; I imagine it has been the same for most of us. Still, we survived it! Traditionally, I like to finish the year on a light-hearted note – and this year I want to do the same. So, let’s look the more obscure Christmas customs and traditions…let’s look at the weirder anthropology relating to Christmas.
Mari Lwyd The horse has long been a Pagan symbol of fertility. In Cornwall and Wales, the grey mare – the Mari Lwyd – has become associated with the traditional rituals of Christmas. The Mari Lwyd is a beribboned horse’s head, sometimes an actual skull, sometimes a wooden carving, that is carried about on a pole by a group of men, dressed in their best and also decked with ribbons. The men are carrying luck and goodwill from house to house. The men will engage in a battle of wits with the occupants of the house, or recite traditional rhymes, or in Wales, there may be a singing contest. It seems strange, that the luck bringers are denied entry at first, but their rewards are gifts of food and drink once they do visit within the house. My own theory: the horse is an ancient fertility symbol, and the Christian occupants may not exactly welcome such a pagan symbol, so the ritual battle has to take place to satisfy the ‘look’ of the visit. The Mari Lwyd should not be confused with the chivalrous Hobby horse. The traditional Hobby Horse is concocted of a horse and rider, with the body and trappings of the horse being slung from strap on the rider's shoulders. They often take part in a Medieval processional or masque. The Christmas Mari Lwyd is still believed to bring good luck and fertility to the houses they visit and those who are touched by them.
The Cornish Cows Cornish cows are famous for their cream, but they are also famous for their association with Christmas. At midnight, the cows in their byres are supposed to speak, particularly, they would list the people within the parish who would die over the coming year. If you eavesdropped on purpose, it was considered bad luck, and increased your chances of being on the doomed list. If you heard them speaking by accident, and kept the secret, you might be rewarded. This belief is directly related to the blessed animals in the stable, who witnessed the birth of the Christ Child. Folklore claims they were given the power of speech by the wonderful event, and the miracle is repeated every Christmas… but ends with the sunrise in the morning.
Christmassy Urban Myths The Three Wise Men: There is no actual mention in the bible of three wise men, it only mentions that wise men had arrived from the East to Jerusalem. The number is deduced from the number of their gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Santa’s Reindeer are all girls: This is true. Male (Bull) reindeer drop their horns at the start of winter, while the females (Does) and calves retain their horns until January. As Santa’s sleigh is always depicted with horned reindeer…well, they must be all female. Doesn’t this put Rudolph’s persecution into perspective? She was a girl with a very masculine name.
Biography Emilie Du Chatelet Emilie Du Chatelet was the original ugly duckling who grew into a swan. She was born into a noble family on December 17, 1706 – just a week before Christmas. She was considered a plain and awkward child, with little prospect of making a good marriage, by her father, Louis-Charles-Auguste le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Head of Protocol at the French court. Instead of being confined to the ladylike pursuits of a wellborn maiden, Emilie was allowed to follow her own interests in sports and education. By the time she was twelve, she was fluent in Latin, Italian, English, Greek and German, as well as extremely well read in her native French. She had studied Science, Literature, and Mathematics. To everyone’s surprise, Emilie matured into an attractive woman with a sharp tongue and an observant eye. She married young, to an older military man who was away much of the time. Her husband wasn’t too worried by her active and adventurous social and love life, and remained loyal to her through her affairs and scandals. Already, doesn’t she sound like a real stirrer? Emilie became famous for her relationship with Voltaire. Voltaire would often stay with Emilie – and her husband! – at their country estate, at Cirey in Lorraine, when things were too hot for him in the capital. With Voltaire, she established a library of over a thousand books, mostly about mathematics and physics. Even before she met Voltaire, she was intensely interested in Newton’s work, and converted the great hall in her home into a laboratory, with diverse equipment. Emilie’s translation of Newton's Principia Mathematica is regarded as the standard version in France, and changed the face of French science, showing that maths and physics had advanced beyond Descartes’ theories on science. Working from her home, her greatest discovery was that the kinetic energy of an object is a function of the square of its velocity. In 1740, she wrote ‘Institutions de physique’, a physics textbook that covered many different strains of scientific thought, while remaining true to all of Newtonian physics. There was a scandal when her tutor, Koenig, claimed the book was a rehash of his lessons to Emilie, and he claimed intellectual ownership of the work. Emilie tried to gather support from other scientists, but they failed to rally to her side – after all, she was a mere woman. Years later, Koenig was to make false claims about other scientists. Even though Emilie had a soul mate in Voltaire, and a faithful husband and children, she was still a wild child in her forties. Alas, this was to prove fatal. At forty-two, she became pregnant to her latest conquest, the Marquis de Saint-Lambert. Childbirth was no laughing matter at that time in history, and Emilie was frightened that she would die before completing her life’s work. During her pregnancy, she worked impossible hours to complete her translation of Newton’s Principia. Emilie died, from fever, in September 1749, just a few days after giving birth. The child died a few days later. To me, it seems a shame that such a vibrant and vivid intellect would not be given the chance to flower fully. But you can’t say that Emilie Du Chatelet didn’t live her life to the fullest, or failed to leave a permanent legacy to science.
Concept of the Month Newton’s Laws of Motion First Law: Unless acted upon by an unbalanced force, an object will maintain a constant velocity. (Alternatively, every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.) Second Law: An applied force is equal to the rate of change of momentum. (The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma.) Third Law: All forces occur in pairs, and these two forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. (Or, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.)
Lynne’s Literary Comment What the hey… no comment as such. Just my usual wish that you all have a safe and happy holiday season.
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| *The Voyager Science Queen is also known as Lynne Green So, who is this woman who attempts to entertain us with Science? Well, I really am a scientist. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Queensland, in Zoology. And, at the moment, I am working in a Pathology laboratory. I have always been intensely curious about every aspect of our universe, from the teeny tiny workings of the gene right up to the mind-bending forces that are twisting and knotting inside a blackhole. So, now I am sharing a brain stuffed full of trivia...and hopefully entertaining people at the same time. As well, I write Fantasy stories and novels. One day, I hope to have a book published, but don't hold your breath. Reading is my other major love, and my favourite authors are Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov, though I could list hundreds of others. If I had one wish, I ask for more time to write! Read previous Sci-Facts: The Pandemic Looking for more scientific oddities? Have you checked out Dr Steven Juan's website? He is, quite literally, the wizard of odds! |
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