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Moonstruck: How lunar cycles affect life
Throughout history, the influence of the full Moon on humans and animals has featured in folklore and myths. Yet it has become increasingly apparent that many organisms really are influenced indirectly, and in some cases directly, by the lunar cycle. Breeding behaviour among some marine animals has been demonstrated to be controlled by internal circalunar biological clocks, to the point where lunar-daily and lunar-monthly patterns of Moon-generated tides are embeddedin their genes. Yet, intriguingly, Moon-related behaviours are also found in dry land and fresh water species living far beyond the influence of any tides.In Moonstruck, Ernest Naylor dismisses the myths concerning the influence of the Moon, but shows through a range of fascinating examples the remarkable real effects that we are now finding through science. He suggests that since the advent of evolution on Earth, which occurred shortly after the formation of the Moon, animals evolved adaptations to the lunar cycle, and considers whether, if Moon-clock genes occur in other animals, they also might exist in us?
- GenresScienceNonfiction
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2015
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70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 16, 2022
Rating: 3.5 stars
The contents of this book are reflected in the blurb. Naylor provides the reader with numerous examples of animals (mostly hydrophillic) who are affected by the moon in some way - either by the intensity of moonlight or by the tides. He also takes a look at the available scientific studies to determine if the moon influences human behaviour (not so much). The book is replete with examples, but lacking in analysis and definitive conclusions, which could be due to the lack of relevant studies The examples are fascinating, the writing is formal but not obtuse or too technical. This book makes a nice addition to Rhythms of Life and Seasons of Life by Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman (which are both more detailed in terms of mechanisms and illustrations).
The contents of this book are reflected in the blurb. Naylor provides the reader with numerous examples of animals (mostly hydrophillic) who are affected by the moon in some way - either by the intensity of moonlight or by the tides. He also takes a look at the available scientific studies to determine if the moon influences human behaviour (not so much). The book is replete with examples, but lacking in analysis and definitive conclusions, which could be due to the lack of relevant studies The examples are fascinating, the writing is formal but not obtuse or too technical. This book makes a nice addition to Rhythms of Life and Seasons of Life by Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman (which are both more detailed in terms of mechanisms and illustrations).
February 13, 2021
Moonstruck wasn’t exactly what I expected (as mentioned elsewhere: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World). The subtitle How Lunar Cycles Affect Life is a pretty fair description of the book. Ernest Naylor isn’t an astronomer, an anthropologist, or a specialist in folklore. He’s a marine biologist, and that is clearly his main interest in this popular science treatment of effects the moon has on living creatures.
Scientists have long debated lunar influence, mostly doubting that it exists. Naylor demonstrates that it has both direct and indirect (through the tides) influence on many marine species. Even some nocturnal land-based animals orient themselves via the moon. Interestingly, many scientists see this is a continuation of the folklore with which Naylor opens his book. Clearly, however, there is scientific evidence of lunar impact on many species.
When it comes to humans, however, Naylor is skeptical. He accepts the circadian rhythms of creatures, including us. He suggests that there may be a genetic basis for such rhythms, and that perhaps humans also retain some orientation to the moon, but the popular beliefs lack scientific evidence. While the book is a bit technical for popular science, it contains a number of interesting ideas and concepts worth exploring. It is especially worthy of note for those who have a fascination with tides and how the moon does influence creatures at home in the water.
Scientists have long debated lunar influence, mostly doubting that it exists. Naylor demonstrates that it has both direct and indirect (through the tides) influence on many marine species. Even some nocturnal land-based animals orient themselves via the moon. Interestingly, many scientists see this is a continuation of the folklore with which Naylor opens his book. Clearly, however, there is scientific evidence of lunar impact on many species.
When it comes to humans, however, Naylor is skeptical. He accepts the circadian rhythms of creatures, including us. He suggests that there may be a genetic basis for such rhythms, and that perhaps humans also retain some orientation to the moon, but the popular beliefs lack scientific evidence. While the book is a bit technical for popular science, it contains a number of interesting ideas and concepts worth exploring. It is especially worthy of note for those who have a fascination with tides and how the moon does influence creatures at home in the water.
October 20, 2020
If you're curious about how the moon and tides affect life on this planet, here is a great place to start getting lots of data to get some perspective on it all. But be warned, this is a heavy and extremely scientific book with almost no concept of narrative whatsoever. This book is very informative and fascinating, focusing mostly on mating cycles of sea life and how the full and new moon cycles influence them, but it's so dryly written that I couldn't finish it and ultimately lost interest about halfway through. I may revisit it in the future but it's just very dense and a lot of information to process in a single read!
March 6, 2025
This book was an emotional rollercoaster. I found it and thought it might be a bunch of hippydippy nonsense, and was excited to read drivel. Then the opening chapter promised a rich and exciting look into the hidden ways in which the moon influences humanity. But what I got was nearly 200 pages chronically the different responses animals have to the moon and/or tides. Not saying it wasn’t a good book, just that it didn’t meet my expectations.
October 11, 2015
Here's a review I did for he Literary Review:
Moonstruck promises far more (especially in the subtitle) than it delivers. The claims for the influence of lunar cycles on life presented here are hedged around with terms like “subjective interpretation”, “equivocal” and “little hard evidence”. But full marks to the author for honesty, and he has produced a book which, while not exactly being a light read, contains many fascinating nuggets of information.
The rationale Ernest Naylor, who is Professor Emeritus in the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University, offers for producing his book now is that what he terms “the reality of the Moon” has been greatly enhanced by space probes and observations carried out on the Apollo missions, while at the same time its everyday (or every month) personal “reality” has become obscured to city dwellers. While the science of daily (circadian) rhythms of life has advanced over the past fifty years, he says, the study of Moon-related circatidal and circalunar rhythms has lagged behind.
But this highlights a problem with the book for the casual reader. The most pronounced lunar influences on life are indeed effected through tidal rhythms, and as an oceanographer this clearly fascinates Professor Naylor. But most of us have only a passing interest in the life cycles of crabs, marine worms and turtles, and would much rather learn about (or be entertained by stories of) lunar influences on human life. The snag being, there are precious few of them, they are mostly equivocal, subjective, and there is very little hard evidence to back them up.
All this, though comes right at the end of the book, after the compulsory nod at ancient myths and legends and a chapter of solid science in the form of the “Big Splash” model for the origin of the Moon, when a Mars-sized object collided with the young Earth, and the idea that life may have emerged in the tidal regions of our planet.
The intriguing nugget of information buried in the wealth of material about sea-dwellers that follows is that many creatures seem to possess an internal clock, which can be set by the tides, but operates semi-independently once set. The classic example is provided by a kind of worm which burrows in sandy beaches. The worms come to the surface at low tide, when the beach is uncovered, but burrow back into the sand just before the tide comes in. This can only be because their internal clock tells them the tide is due. Sure enough, when the are taken from the shore and put in tanks in the laboratory, where they experience no tides directly, they show the same rhythm of activity at first; but it gradually runs down. Then, if they are put back in their natural habitat the body clock gets re-set as they experience the ebb and flow of the tides once more.
It really is the ebb and flow that matters. There is no way that these influences can be arising from the direct gravitational influence of the Moon. As Naylor points out, “the gravitational pulls of the Moon and the Sun are so small that they affect the human body only by the weight equivalent of a bead of sweat or a human hair.” And worms proportionately.
So, skipping lightly past the crabs and turtles, what influence, if any, does the Moon have on what Naylor calls “the human condition”? Here we venture deep into the murky realms of equivocation and controversy. One study suggests that ruptures of aneurysms peak at the time of new Moon; another study finds no such evidence. Several published studies support the idea that the phases of the Moon influence sleep patterns in people. But then again, other researchers claim that this shows up in published data because similar studies which show no such effect did not get published.
In fact, when it comes to lunar influences on the human condition Naylor is much more convincing when dismissing alleged correlation than when trying to bolster them. Contrary to a popular belief, emergency admissions to hospital do not show any correlation with the phases of the Moon, suicides do not follow the lunar cycle, and epileptic seizures are not influenced by the Moon. In 1982, a study showed that “there was no significant correlation between the daily or monthly phase of the Moon and human libido, thus shattering another myth concerning the Moon and the human condition.” The author is reduced to the rather plaintive conclusion that “perhaps there may yet prove to be something behind the folklore concerning human behaviour and the Moon”; then again, perhaps not.
The biggest puzzle about this book is why (and how) it should appear under the imprint of Oxford University Press. It would be quite at home with a small press, or in this day and age as a self-published print on demand title. That might also have made it possible to offer the title at a more sensible price for what is a quite slim volume with a somewhat limited audience. But what do I know. I only write books, I don’t publish them!
John Gribbin is a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. His latest book, 13.8, describes the quest to determine the age of the Universe and the stars it contains.
Moonstruck promises far more (especially in the subtitle) than it delivers. The claims for the influence of lunar cycles on life presented here are hedged around with terms like “subjective interpretation”, “equivocal” and “little hard evidence”. But full marks to the author for honesty, and he has produced a book which, while not exactly being a light read, contains many fascinating nuggets of information.
The rationale Ernest Naylor, who is Professor Emeritus in the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University, offers for producing his book now is that what he terms “the reality of the Moon” has been greatly enhanced by space probes and observations carried out on the Apollo missions, while at the same time its everyday (or every month) personal “reality” has become obscured to city dwellers. While the science of daily (circadian) rhythms of life has advanced over the past fifty years, he says, the study of Moon-related circatidal and circalunar rhythms has lagged behind.
But this highlights a problem with the book for the casual reader. The most pronounced lunar influences on life are indeed effected through tidal rhythms, and as an oceanographer this clearly fascinates Professor Naylor. But most of us have only a passing interest in the life cycles of crabs, marine worms and turtles, and would much rather learn about (or be entertained by stories of) lunar influences on human life. The snag being, there are precious few of them, they are mostly equivocal, subjective, and there is very little hard evidence to back them up.
All this, though comes right at the end of the book, after the compulsory nod at ancient myths and legends and a chapter of solid science in the form of the “Big Splash” model for the origin of the Moon, when a Mars-sized object collided with the young Earth, and the idea that life may have emerged in the tidal regions of our planet.
The intriguing nugget of information buried in the wealth of material about sea-dwellers that follows is that many creatures seem to possess an internal clock, which can be set by the tides, but operates semi-independently once set. The classic example is provided by a kind of worm which burrows in sandy beaches. The worms come to the surface at low tide, when the beach is uncovered, but burrow back into the sand just before the tide comes in. This can only be because their internal clock tells them the tide is due. Sure enough, when the are taken from the shore and put in tanks in the laboratory, where they experience no tides directly, they show the same rhythm of activity at first; but it gradually runs down. Then, if they are put back in their natural habitat the body clock gets re-set as they experience the ebb and flow of the tides once more.
It really is the ebb and flow that matters. There is no way that these influences can be arising from the direct gravitational influence of the Moon. As Naylor points out, “the gravitational pulls of the Moon and the Sun are so small that they affect the human body only by the weight equivalent of a bead of sweat or a human hair.” And worms proportionately.
So, skipping lightly past the crabs and turtles, what influence, if any, does the Moon have on what Naylor calls “the human condition”? Here we venture deep into the murky realms of equivocation and controversy. One study suggests that ruptures of aneurysms peak at the time of new Moon; another study finds no such evidence. Several published studies support the idea that the phases of the Moon influence sleep patterns in people. But then again, other researchers claim that this shows up in published data because similar studies which show no such effect did not get published.
In fact, when it comes to lunar influences on the human condition Naylor is much more convincing when dismissing alleged correlation than when trying to bolster them. Contrary to a popular belief, emergency admissions to hospital do not show any correlation with the phases of the Moon, suicides do not follow the lunar cycle, and epileptic seizures are not influenced by the Moon. In 1982, a study showed that “there was no significant correlation between the daily or monthly phase of the Moon and human libido, thus shattering another myth concerning the Moon and the human condition.” The author is reduced to the rather plaintive conclusion that “perhaps there may yet prove to be something behind the folklore concerning human behaviour and the Moon”; then again, perhaps not.
The biggest puzzle about this book is why (and how) it should appear under the imprint of Oxford University Press. It would be quite at home with a small press, or in this day and age as a self-published print on demand title. That might also have made it possible to offer the title at a more sensible price for what is a quite slim volume with a somewhat limited audience. But what do I know. I only write books, I don’t publish them!
John Gribbin is a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. His latest book, 13.8, describes the quest to determine the age of the Universe and the stars it contains.
March 28, 2021
This was super useful as someone who wants to understand the actual science behind the moon and our earthly connection to it. It's given me lots of ideas for symbology and practice in my own animistic connection to the moon.
November 4, 2018
This was fairly solid, but if I'd realised just how much it was actually about invertebrates, I probably wouldn't have given it a second glance.
October 11, 2015
In "Moonstruck", Naylor delivers a tutorial on separating myth from reality. Myths, fables, and tales featuring the moon's influence on life on Earth about in just about every culture. The scientific community as a whole is deeply skeptical. Naylor sets out to determine what some of the very real influences of the Moon on life are and carefully describes how we know what we know about them. Okay, there's a behavior that correlates with the tides, but is this animal just responding to when it gets wet, or does it have an internal clock? How do we determine that, and what does it mean for our understanding of that organism?
Most of the effects he describes are tidally-linked and have to do with marine life. He does cover some other effects, and then in the last chapter addresses some myths about human lives being affected by lunar cycles. The only evidence that seemed up for interpretations one way or another has to do with our sleep cycles. The moon doesn't cause people to go crazy or commit crimes. It's traditional beliefs like these that make scientists cringe. But Naylor expertly aims his arguments at those who appreciate true scientific arguments. Most of those myths are nothing more. But some of them are based on a seed of truth. And in the stories that he tells, there are some unlikely characters. I rolled my eyes at the lengthy section on the sea louse (yes, that's a thing) only to be later intrigued by the lowly dung beetle navigating by the polarization of light from the full moon. Okay, he got me. That's pretty cool.
It's not exactly a chatty book, but I recommend it for fans and/or students of science who want to learn about the process of science. He handles the presence of truth mired in myth expertly.
I got a free copy of this from Net Galley.
Most of the effects he describes are tidally-linked and have to do with marine life. He does cover some other effects, and then in the last chapter addresses some myths about human lives being affected by lunar cycles. The only evidence that seemed up for interpretations one way or another has to do with our sleep cycles. The moon doesn't cause people to go crazy or commit crimes. It's traditional beliefs like these that make scientists cringe. But Naylor expertly aims his arguments at those who appreciate true scientific arguments. Most of those myths are nothing more. But some of them are based on a seed of truth. And in the stories that he tells, there are some unlikely characters. I rolled my eyes at the lengthy section on the sea louse (yes, that's a thing) only to be later intrigued by the lowly dung beetle navigating by the polarization of light from the full moon. Okay, he got me. That's pretty cool.
It's not exactly a chatty book, but I recommend it for fans and/or students of science who want to learn about the process of science. He handles the presence of truth mired in myth expertly.
I got a free copy of this from Net Galley.
November 21, 2015
This book was not a success for me. It was very dry, just example after example. But the worst thing was that the author didn't do what he promised to do. You know, a lot of this book is about marine organisms, and whether their behavior is directly influenced by the moon, or more indirectly by the tides. Naylor kept promising that in the next chapter he would talk about direct influences of the moon, or about non-marine organisms, or about land-dwelling animals. And then you would start the next chapter only to find that he was still talking about marine species influenced, directly or indirectly, by the moon. That really bothered me!
So, apart from a few interesting facts, I didn't take too much from this book. Guess it just isn't for me.
So, apart from a few interesting facts, I didn't take too much from this book. Guess it just isn't for me.
August 14, 2015
From Netgalley for a Review
This book told me things about the biology of various creatures that I honestly had no idea I wanted to know. Going beyond the myths and legends that surround our satellite, the author looks at how the moon affects primarily the reproductive habits of sea life and sea plants, and it fascinating!
This is not a read for everyone, though it covers a subject that is not an everyday conversation kinda subject, but it is fascinating and presented not as a dry scholarly work, but as a very approachable read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This book told me things about the biology of various creatures that I honestly had no idea I wanted to know. Going beyond the myths and legends that surround our satellite, the author looks at how the moon affects primarily the reproductive habits of sea life and sea plants, and it fascinating!
This is not a read for everyone, though it covers a subject that is not an everyday conversation kinda subject, but it is fascinating and presented not as a dry scholarly work, but as a very approachable read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
November 13, 2015
Moonstruck by Ernest Naylor begins with a most interesting premise, that the moon has subtle effects on most organisms, including humans; that even we respond to lunar cycles in terms of reproduction, violence and even death. The beliefs in lunar causation abound. The author starts small with sea dwelling worms, crustaceans and other denizens of the oceans, detailing the experiments that indicate that simpler creatures do time their ... Read the entire review at http://www.sandiegobookreview.com/moo...
Reviewed by Ralph Peterson
Reviewed by Ralph Peterson
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March 7, 2018An interesting read, discussing creatures as diverse as fish and dung beetles using moonlight to orientate themselves and do their required activities.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews