LACUNAE
Study debunks full-moon injury beliefs
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Ever whacked your thumb with a hammer, or wrenched your back after lifting a heavy box, and blamed the full moon? It’s a popular notion but there’s no cosmic connection, Austrian government researchers said in July. Robert Seeberger, a physicist and astronomer at Austria’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, said a team of experts analyzed 500 000 industrial accidents in Austria between 2000 and 2004 and found no link to lunar activity. The study said that on average there were 415 workplace accidents registered per day. Yet on days when the moon was full, the average actually dipped to 385, although the difference was not statistically significant. The lunar influence theory dates at least to the first century AD, when the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder wrote that his observations suggested "the moon produces drowsiness and stupor in those who sleep outside beneath her beams".
Ted Miller, from Pacific Institute for
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