Sunspots may be the cause of worldwide influenza epidemics (pandemics), British astronomers Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe of the University of Wales reported last week in Nature. They said that the two events occur in 11-year cycles that are closely synchronized.
Researchers have connected other events, particularly weather, to sunspot cycles before, the noted astronomers wrote, but the relationships usually peter out after a few cycles. But the evidence linking influenza goes back more than two centuries to the first recorded influenza pandemic in 1761, they said.
