Solar eclipse
myth and facts…. It is claimed that if a
pregnant woman goes out during an eclipse, her baby will be born with a cleft
lip
For long I was academically busy that I couldn’t update my blog. One of
my students called me last week and wanted some interesting matter on eclipse
to be uploaded. So I decided to have this week’s blog update as solar eclipse
myth and the logical scientific reasons behind.
Solar eclipse means moon in between sun and earth. In villages, they
place a pestle (called ulakkai in tamil) upright on the ground during eclipse
time. The pestle has iron on both ends and made of wood. This is kept upright
and is found to stand upright due to the magnetic pull during eclipse which
lasts only few minutes. The people watch the pestle fall off and take this as
an indication for the completion time of eclipse. At the time of this eclipse
the magnetic pull is very very powerful and also it is during these few seconds
or minutes that highly powerful UV rays reach the earth.
UV rays are well – known to cause genetic mutations particularly at the
time of foetal development. It is claimed that
if a pregnant woman goes out during an eclipse, her baby will be born with a
cleft lip. This is because the UV rays and magnetic effect can affected the
child particularly during the first 6months of pregnancy. The transfer of magnetic
power is aided through iron materials like knife, hair clips, iron rod, tools,
machinery, etc. Pregnant women who use kitchen tools or carry such iron rods/materials
are likely to face problems of cleft lip children.
Though there are sparse genetic research in these
aspects (owing to short span of time of eclipse) it is always better to be
precautious !. There are research papers pointing out UV rays to produce
genetic mutation and a causative factor for cleft lips. (MJ Dixon - 2011, SS Kohli - 2012). University
of Iowa researchers and collaborators have identified new genetic mutations that likely cause the common form of cleft
lip and palate.
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