Bah! Humbug - An Alternative Christmas Speech

Professor Jon Mee, English and Comparative Literary Studies discusses Dickens at Christmas

Next year will see the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens (February 7), and with it an international celebration of his life and work. Charles Dickens will forever be linked to Christmas thanks to his hugely successful novel, A Christmas Carol, which has been read by many and turned into numerous Hollywood films.

In this video, Professor Jon Mee, gives an alternative Christmas speech that takes a look at Dickens' legacy and how it stretches far beyond A Christmas Carol.

The University will also be celebrating Dickens during 2012 with a series of videos, podcasts and articles from Warwick academics looking at different aspects of Dickens' personal life, his novels, adaptations and Victorian Britain. Visit our Celebrating Dickens site to find out more.

A Sleepless Night for Santa

Academics from Warwick Medical School explain the risks of Santa's sleepless night on Christmas Eve

Every year Santa Claus and his team of elves and reindeers stay awake for days and nights to deliver presents all over the world for Christmas - but they could be putting their health at risk. Sleep experts Professor Franco Cappuccio and Dr Michelle Miller, from Warwick Medical School, said "Considering that he does it only once a year, it may not be too bad for his long-term health. However, in the short term there are risks."

"Lack of sleep will make him drowsy, his vigilance will fade and his ability to think and remember will diminish. There is risk for himself and others: he could fall asleep at the reins and crash his sleigh, he could even end up delivering the wrong present to the wrong person. Whilst a little nap on a rooftop here and there (no more than 20 minutes) might help in the short-term, it is no substitute for a good 8h night sleep."

"Santa will definitely feel hungry after a sleepless night, since sleep deprivation increases appetite, so he appreciates a bit of grub to keep him going. Since sleep debt also leads to obesity, his pot belly is not a surprise to us. Don't leave him any booze, though! His sleepiness and tiredness already brings his attention to the level of someone who is over the alcohol limit, and there would be a real risk of him crashing his sleigh. However, children should be reassured: he only does it once a year for us all, and by following this advice he will remain fresh and alert on Christmas Eve!

For a full account on the effects of poor quantity and quality of sleep on health please consult the recently published book: Sleep, Health and Society, Cappuccio FP, Miller MA & Lockley SW eds. Oxford University Press, 2010; pp. 1-471 (ISBN 978-0-19-956649-4)

Professor Stewart's Symmetry of Snowflakes

Professor Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics tells us how snowflakes are formed.

"Snowflakes, famously, are six-sided. Some are featureless hexagons, but many are extraordinarily intricate, Jack Frost in miniature. So intricate that it is often said that no two snowflakes are identical. I'm not sure it's possible to prove that experimentally-you'd have to examine every snowflake that ever fell. But there are so many different ways to put a snowflake together that it seems entirely likely. Except for the featureless hexagons, of course."

"An ice crystal grows when molecules of water adhere to its surface. Certain combinations of humidity and temperature create conditions in which flat surfaces are dynamically unstable, an effect called the Mullins-Sekerka instability. In these conditions, if a flat surface accidentally develops a tiny bump, the bump grows faster than other nearby regions, amplifying the irregularity. A big enough bump is nearly flat, and becomes unstable for the same reason, so new smaller bumps proliferate. This process of repeated 'tip-splitting' leads to a fernlike pattern known as a dendrite. Dendritic growth causes the enormous variety of shapes seen in snowflakes, because the branching patterns are extremely sensitive to slight changes in humidity and temperature."

"Such variations are unavoidable in clouds, where snow is born. Clouds are mainly composed of water vapour, and the atmosphere within them is in constant motion. Clouds form when a mass of warm, moisture-laden air runs into a region of colder air. Within the mixing zone, where the temperature change is most abrupt, excess water vapour condenses to form ice crystals, which can either grow into flakes of snow or dense lumps of hail. These circulate within the cloud, and eventually fall out of the bottom." Read more about the Symmetry of Snowflakes on Warwick Knowledge Centre.

Dating the Birth of Jesus

Professor Kevin Butcher, Classics and Ancient History, takes a historical look at the birth of Jesus

Our dating system, AD, was devised by a sixth century monk Dionysius Exiguus, with Anno Domini meaning 'in the year of our Lord'. Yet since the 16th and 17th centuries historians have wondered if our calendar really does date back to the first Christmas.

Professor Kevin Butcher takes a small coin as evidence and asks could the monk have got it wrong? What does this mean for our dating system? And can the coin help us date Jesus' nativity more accurately?

You can watch more videos in this series from Prof Kevin Butcher on our website.

When Christmas was Banned

Historian, Professor Bernard Capp, looks back to when Christmas was banned in Britain

Christmas is a time for celebration but the festive season was once banned in England for almost 20 years, sparking a second Civil War. University of Warwick historian Professor Bernard Capp said the ban was put in place by the Puritan government in 1647 as they believed Christmas was used as an excuse for drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling and other forms of excess.

In the first half of the 17th Century, the 25th of December was a public holiday and all places of work would close. People attended special church services and public places were decorated with holly, rosemary and Ivy. Celebrations included dancing, singing, drinking and exchanging presents. Festive feasts included roast beef and mince pies.

Puritans saw Christmas as a Pagan festival and claimed the 25th December was not a named day in the bible. They enforced the ban on Christmas and all shops and markets had to stay open and many churches were locked to prevent them holding a Christmas service.

The public responded violently to the ban and there were disturbances across the country. One of the worst hotspots was Canterbury where violent looting and rioting broke out the first Christmas after the ban was imposed.

Professor Capp said: "The repercussions of the rioting at Canterbury led eventually to a rebellion and a second Civil War. The Puritan ban had the perverse effect of making Christmas less religious as people still stopped work on the 25th December and secretly treated it as a time to eat, drink and enjoy themselves."

Abandoned Christmas Tree Plantation

A Poem by English academic, poet and writer, Professor David Morley

We are waiting for a Christmas that never came,
each species a friend of a friend of some needle-hue.
All the years, heights and postures are present
like children in a school that no child ever leaves.

Each species a friend of a friend of some needle-hue:
those adolescent spruces prickle with boredom
like children in a school that no child ever leaves.
The infant firs sing to themselves in the snow.

The prefect pines, sky-high, peer down unmoved.
Those adolescent spruces prickle with boredom;
the infant firs sing to themselves in the snow.
We speak through the wind and only then in murmurs;
stretch our limbs into the wind to catch at birds.

The prefect pines, sky-high, peer down unmoved
bartering a bullfinch song for a goldfinch chime.
We speak through the wind and only then in murmurs.
By dusk we are whispers and secret playtime rhymes.

We stretch our limbs into the wind and catch at birds.
Our tree rings are school bells that peal in December
bartering a bullfinch song for a goldfinch chime.
By dusk we are whispers and secret playtime rhymes.

All the years, heights and postures are present.
Our tree rings are school bells that peal for December.
We are waiting for a Christmas that will never come.

This poem is taken from Professor David Morley’s collection "Enchantment" from Carcanet publishers.

You can also watch more videos from Professor David Morley’s Slow Poetry collection on our YouTube channel.

The Future of The Christmas Dinner

Research at the University of Warwick's Crop Centre is protecting our favourite Christmas vegetables.

Ever wondered what the future holds for the humble vegetables normally found on your Christmas dinner plate? Probably not, but nestled between the stuffing and the cranberry sauce are the results of a complex interaction between the natural environment (for example weather, soil, pests and diseases), the skills and experience of plant breeders and vegetable growers, and science.

Yes, you did read that correctly - science has an important role to play in the continuation of the Christmas dinner as we know it through assisting the development of new vegetable varieties. The vegetable varieties of the future will have to be more productive (there are now over 7 billion people on the planet) and yet able to cope with a more challenging environment where water, fertilizers and pesticides may not be as readily available and pest insects and plant diseases may be more prevalent and difficult to control.

Researchers in the School of Life Sciences and Warwick Crop Centre are working on a variety of projects which address these issues. Dr John Walsh is working on new sources of resistance to Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), which can infect Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and other crops. It causes nasty-looking black spots on infected plants and has rendered whole crops unmarketable in some instances. Dr Walsh’s group is also working on another virus called Turnip yellows virus (TuYV) which they have found to reduce the yield of sprout plants by as much as a massive 65%. In a field trial this year, 78% of Brussels sprouts became infected by this virus within 38 days of planting and soon after, all plants were infected.

Recognising that the past always holds lessons for the future, the Warwick Genetic Resources Unit conserves and manages a collection of almost 14,000 seed samples from different vegetable crops, including those Christmas stalwarts parsnips, onions, carrots and Brussels sprouts. These samples could contain the genetic variation needed by plant breeders to produce improved varieties for the future.

So as you tuck into a plateful of beautifully prepared vegetables at Christmas, spare a thought for the work going on at Warwick to ensure that the Christmas dinner of the future looks and tastes just as good.

Oh Come All Ye Wasteful

A new technique from the School of Engineering could see 100% of plastic waste recycled

On average we each consume 120 grammes of plastic wrapping on Christmas gifts most of which is of a type which is almost impossible to recycle. Now researchers at Warwick have devised a new technique which could process 100% of Christmas and other household plastic. Typically only 12% of such waste is truly recycled, often the rest is put into land fill or simply burnt as fuel.

Visiting Professor, Jan Baeyens and his team in the School of Engineering, have found a way to extract valuable chemicals from the common mix of waste plastics found in our rubbish bins. This simple process can cope with every piece of plastic waste and can even break some polymers such as polystyrene – back down to its original monomers (styrene in the case of polysterene).

Although the process takes time and money, the input rubbish is better than free – since you avoid paying landfill taxes - and the various outputs, gases liquids and solids can be sold at a high price. Such products include styrene and char (or carbonaceous residue) that can be sold at £400-£700 per tonne. In addition to the financial incentives this could ease the strain on Britain’s landfill sites.

The aim of the initial project was to prove that this was possible in a pilot-scale plant. The next step is to scale it up and trial it out on an actual rubbish dump where a larger plant could pump-out products on a commercial scale. So in the future all our plastic Christmas waste could potentially be recycled.