Moon photographers will have a ball on November 14 when the full moon makes its closest pass to the Earth, becoming a “supermoon”. Expect to see the world’s nightlight as you’ve probably never seen it before: about 13% larger and 30% brighter. As a prelude, check out how much you can already see if you zoom in.
Along with the flurry of photographs, this celestial event has always been linked to the strangest effects on the Earth. Here’s a brief overview of a few and what science thinks of them.
Madness
The Legend:
If you’ve ever been called a “lunatic”, I bet you never knew that word came from the Roman goddess of the moon, Luna. The link between madness and the moon was also speculated on by Aristotle who believed that since the moon moved the sea, and the brain was the “moistest” organ in the body, it could be affected by the same lunar power.
The Science:
While the human body is about 75% water, the moon has little pull on your grey matter (so no, that won’t fly as an exam excuse). As observed by the late astronomer George Abell, the gravitational pull of a mosquito on your arm is actually stronger than the moon’s force on you – and no one worries about the “mosquito lunacy effect”. Also what gives the full moon special pull? Gravity works regardless of moon phase, and some full moons take place at apogee when the gravitational pull is weakest.
Crime
The Legend:
In 2007, a police inspector trying to streamline his crime-fighting operation compared crime statistics of the English city of Brighton and Hove with moon phases and came to a startling conclusion. Apparently, people became more “aggressive” during the full moon. “From my experience, over 19 years of being a police officer, undoubtedly on full moons, we do seem to get people with, sort of, stranger behaviour – more fractious, argumentative.” In line with that ‘discovery’ he assigned more duty staff for the next full moon.
The Science:
While personal experience is intriguing, there may be explanations for crime spikes apart from the lunar link. Sometimes the full moon may happen to fall on a weekend or holiday when people are already more free to get in trouble. Also “selective recall” means we would tend to remember full moon nights with weird events better than full moon nights where all is quiet, which can lead to lopsided conclusions.
Weirdness
The Legend:
You won’t learn this in medical school, but many US doctors and medical staff think that the full moon brings chaos in the form of more admissions, psychotic patients, strange injuries, and women going into labour under peculiar circumstances. Some hospitals actually beef up staff numbers on full moon days, and ask doctors not to take the day off.
The Science:
A study conducted in 1996 pored through 150,999 admissions records of one emergency department over four years. Despite 49 full moons there were no spikes in admissions.
Overall, a meta-analysis of 37 studies on lunar effects concluded that “full moons are entirely unrelated to a host of events, including crimes, suicides, psychiatric problems and crisis centre calls.”
So enjoy the supermoon (visible anywhere in Singapore) without worrying about more madness, weirdness or crime than usual.
Except perhaps the super-werewolves.
By Vincent Tan
