Sir, On the basis of the data that they had collected, Parmeshwaran et al.(1999) concluded that a significant relationship exists between phases of the lunar synodic cycle and the development of psychiatric morbidity. From a methodological perspective, I have a reservation about their validity of their conclusions : Parmeshwaran et al.(1999) studied patients at the time of admission and not at ...

Prominent in the sky, but not visible to humans, is a pattern of polarized skylight formed around both the Sun and the Moon. Dung beetles are, at present, the only animal group known to use the much dimmer polarization pattern formed around the Moon as a compass cue for maintaining travel direction. However, the Moon is not visible every night and the intensity of the celestial polarization pat...

In the experiment reported here, 30 participants made a lexical decision on 120 spoken words and 120 spoken nonwords. The words had either an upward (e.g. ‘moon’) or downward (e.g. ‘sewer’) spatial association, or they were neutral in this respect (e.g. ‘letter’). Participants made their lexical decisions by fixating a target located either above or below the centre of the screen, counterbalanc...