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Shooting for the Stars: A Scientific Approach to Astrology

For thousands of years, people have claimed that the night sky affects us as individuals, and to the scientific community these ideas were unfounded and laughable, but could modern theories of the universe and our current understanding of the human brain help to finally substantiate these astrological phenomena?

Astrology is the study of the movements of celestial bodies, and their influences on human affairs and the natural world. And for the most part, cultures around the world have used anecdotal evidence and religious beliefs to construct these complex systems of reading the stars. As a consequence, scientists have always scoffed at the idea that the planets could have any effect on us, on our personalities, and on our lives. But more and more our world has turned science fiction into new technologies and philosophy into modern physics, and has made the impossible possible. Yet, Astrology has remained a constant pillar of pseudoscientific beliefs that permeates our society and continues to lack any scientific validity.

To bring such validity into the study of Astrology, we need to understand what the astrological influence at play here actually is. Published in 1687, Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation states that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with the force known as gravity. The force of gravity is now known to be one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. The other three (the strong nuclear, the weak nuclear, and the electromagnetic) are almost entirely negligible when talking about long distances between two neutrally charged objects, such as planets. The only force that remains relevant in these conditions is gravity. Therefore, if we are to assume an astrological influence from the planets, the only force in modern physics that could reasonably have an effect on us is the gravitational one.

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Right now, no matter where you are, you are feeling the pull of gravity from the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and all of the planets in our solar system. Not only that, but you are feeling a slightly different pull of gravity from each of these celestial bodies than every other person in the world, and while some of these differences are very small, they are never zero. And every day the planets move along their orbits, the Earth spins on its axis, and the Moon rotates around us. And these periodic and predictable movements make it possible to calculate the exact force of gravity between a person on the Earth's surface and all of these different astronomical objects.

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Now you might think it's a bold claim that gravity affects our brain, and therefore our personalities and behaviours, but is there any science that shows this to be the case? Well, sort of. Several studies find that our brains, and in particular our hormone cycles, might have a subconscious sensor that can detect changes in the gravitational field. This might sound like science fiction, but it isn't without precedent. Many aquatic animals and some insects can detect changes in the electromagnetic fields in their environments.  So it isn't too far-fetched that humans might have a similar ability, just instead with regard to gravity. But how could the planets have any effect on us through this hypothetical sense if their pull on us is minuscule compared to the magnitude of the force from the Earth?

Well, yes, the force of gravity from these astronomical objects gets very small, to the point that it might seem negligible. But what if I told you that our senses don't work linearly? According to the Weber-Fechner Law, the perceived sensory intensity is proportional to the logarithm of the input stimulus. And this is observed in the majority of our senses, including those of loudness, brightness, weight, and numerosity. Think about it this way: if you were to hold a pencil in one hand and a pen in the other, you'd be able to tell the difference, and tell that the pen is the heavier of the two; but if you held two heavy barbells with the same weight difference as between a pen and pencil, you'd probably think they weighed the same. This is because we are more sensitive to smaller stimuli and perceive changes in them more acutely.

Now, with this in mind, we can show that the gravitational attraction of even some of the most distant planets in our solar system, when on a logarithmic scale, still appear significant.  Regardless, this project outlines no conclusive results, neither in favour of nor against Astrology's scientific claim, it merely discusses the possibilities, the potential explanations, and suggests further inquiry and research. For more information, visit Gravitology.org