Christmas need not mean switching science off, say researchers who suggest simple experiments at home.
Matthew Cobb shows how flavour depends on smell by tasting sweets while holding your nose.
Release your nose mid-chew and the flavour suddenly appears, revealing how smell shapes taste.
Cracker jokes also offer science lessons.
Sophie Scott says laughter is social, not about joke quality.
People laugh far more in company than alone, even at terrible punchlines.
The Christmas bird can become a biology lesson.
Steve Brusatte recommends examining turkey bones to understand movement and flight.
Boiling the carcass leaves a jigsaw that reveals biomechanics clearly.
Festive chemistry appears in the kitchen.
Andrea Sella explains how salt lowers ice temperature to make ice-cream in minutes.
Salt forces ice to melt, stealing heat and freezing the custard.
Even maths fits the season.
Kit Yates suggests scattering pine needles on lined paper to estimate pi.
The result shows probability at work on the living room floor.
