Comparisons of Some Fluctuations in Cosmic Radiation and in Organismic Activity During 1954, 1955 and 1956

Abstract

Average solar-day and lunar-day fluctuations in O₂-consumption, or in spontaneous motor activity, were analyzed for eight species of animals and plants ranging from higher to lower forms for a total of 20 monthly periods in 1954 and 1955. These were compared with the concurrent fluctuations in cosmic radiation. Striking similarities were evident in every instance in either direct or mirror-image relationship. A further comparison, involving 18 single-day periods of metabolism and radiation in 1956, suggested that the average similarities seen are a consequence of a day-by-day response to some external fluctuating factor which pervades the so-called constant conditions and whose fluctuations are, either through a cause-effect or a parallel-induction relationship, correlated with the cosmic radiation.