Do We Really Need the Moon? Page #5

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It's all about the strange, terrible magic of the Moon.

Even today, it is often said that the full Moon casts a spell over us.

# I see a bad moon rising... #

It sends us a bit crazy.

It's Friday night and I'm out with the police.

It's always a busy time with people partying in clubs and bars.

But tonight is also a full Moon.

Does that make any difference?

Over the years, there have been many studies.

Some claim to show a link between the crime rate and a full Moon.

They suggest that people become wilder and more violent when the Moon is full.

It's called the Transylvania Effect.

One police force in the south of England

was so convinced, they put extra officers on the beat at a full Moon,

just in case.

But is it true? Does the Moon really change our behaviour?

Well, sadly, I don't think so.

For every study claiming an effect, there are many more dismissing it.

The theory probably stems from the fact that when the Moon is full, the sky is much, much brighter.

In the past, before electric lights, people were more likely to go out on a bright night,

so there was more chance for trouble.

These days, alcohol is surely a far more important factor

than the light of a full Moon.

But even if the Transylvania Effect is a bit of a myth,

the Moon is still very powerful.

There are many animals which react instinctively to the light of the full Moon.

They become more active, more vocal,

more fertile.

Most remarkable of all are these tropical corals.

Every year they synchronise their reproductive cycle,

so on one night they all spawn together.

And for these corals, it's triggered by the full Moon.

The Sargasso Sea, off the coast of Bermuda.

Marine biologist Dr Anne Cohen is studying how the Moon affects the growth of corals.

She's looking for a species known as Diploria strigosa,

the brain coral.

Every 29 days, on a full Moon,

brain corals grow a new layer of skeleton on top of the old.

This growth spurt is dictated by the monthly orbit of the Moon.

It's like clockwork.

And the skeletal layers can be used as a lunar calendar,...

..a record of time passing.

So, this is the coral that we pulled out of the water today.

And if we look under the microscope,

you can see very fine ridges

and we know that these are formed on the lunar cycle, these are monthly bands.

- So it's a bit like the rings of a tree, you can use that to date it.

- That's right.

And we can count about 65 monthly bands in this coral,

which makes it just over five years old.

That's pretty amazing!

'But some corals are even more revealing.

'They allow us to peer into the distant past

'and find out something extraordinary about the power of the Moon.

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