Moonstruck Scientists

The staff at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque comprises solid, pragmatic scientists and engineers whose work consists largely of developing military and peaceful nuclear devices for the Atomic Energy Commission. That makes even more surprising the contents of a newly released Sandia publication with a formidable title: "Intriguing Accident Patterns Plotted Against a Background of Natural Environment Features." Compiled by a group of Sandia scientists, the 44-page report cautiously suggests what astrologers, mystics and charlatans have long been claiming: accident rates --and presumably other manifestations of human behavior--are influenced by phases of the moon, solar cycles and other natural phenomena.

Sunset Peak. Sandia scientists arrived at their remarkable findings by assembling the records of thousands of accidents in the laboratories for periods of up to 20 years and analyzing them with the aid of a computer. Plotting disabling injuries against the phases of the moon in which they occurred, for example, the researchers found "the possibility of a heightened accident susceptibility for people during the phase similar to that in which they were born, and for the lunar phase which is 180DEG away from that in which they were born." Equally significant, these accidents tended to peak in cycles of the new moon in apogee, the point at which the moon is farthest from the earth.

Turning their attention to the sun, the scientists plotted injuries against a phenomenon associated with the sun's rotation: the 27-day cycle of disturbances in the earth's magnetic field. Again a pattern emerged, with more accidents occurring during the first seven days, the 13th and 14th and the 20th and 25th days of each cycle. Furthermore, there was a noticeable correlation between accidents and sunspot activity, which peaks on an average of every 11 years. In 1968 and 1969, for example, when the number of sunspots reached their peak in recent years, the accident rate at Sandia was the highest in the past two decades.

Additional evidence came from a study of magnetic-field readings in the Albuquerque area: the variations in magnetic-field strength seeming to correspond closely to increases and declines in the accident rate. The investigation also included an analysis of barometric pressure, which other scientists have found to influence human behavior. The Sandia team discovered that most accidents seemed to occur when the barometer was either rising or falling sharply.

Admitting that their findings were preliminary and somewhat skimpy evidence, the researchers cautiously suggested that "natural environment influences in conjunction and interacting with and on the individual create errors, misjudgments, pressures and situations leading to accidents."

The Sandia findings may well inject new vitality into the old theory of biorhythm, which flatly contends that the times at which physical prowess, sensuality and braininess reach maximums and minimums can be pinpointed throughout life. Although there has been no rational explanation so far for the claims of biorhythmicists, variations of the concept have been put to practical use in at least two countries. The Swiss have devised a pocket calculator* that when individually set will show the owner's "off" days --when he is accident prone, forgetful or in low spirits.

In Japan, the Ohmi Railway Co. has stored in a computer the biorhythms of each of its 500 bus drivers. At the beginning of each shift, drivers scheduled to have "bad" days are given a card reminding them to be extra careful. In their first biorhythmic year, 1969, Ohmi's drivers achieved a 50% drop in accidents, a downward trend that continued last year.

* Based on scientifically unproven 23-, 28-and 33-day biological cycles.

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