Shedding Light on Cancer Risk

Looking at the global distributions of breast and prostate cancer points us to consider its possible association with artificial light exposure at night (Figure 1&2).  Figure 1. Breast cancer rates (per 100,000). Source: (Haim & Portnov, 2013)Figure 2. Prostate cancer rates (per 100,000). Source: (Haim & Portnov, 2013) Not only do we detect an oddly similar global distribution of breast and prostate cancer, we also see that cancer incidence rates…

Shielding the dark knights

Unlike the impact of light pollution on animals and plants which are generally negative, the impact that light pollution has on bats is one that is not entirely bad. With the right amount of tree cover that shields light from street lamps, certain species of bats can in fact thrive in urban conditions as Ultraviolet (UV) light attracts insects that bats feed on and a dense tree cover provides protection…

Between the street lamps

As we commute home after a long day of work or school, perhaps this will be the view that most of us see. In a developed city like Singapore, we rely heavily on street lamps to light our roads and ensure the safety of pedestrian and drivers. However, what we might not see is the figure below, the fact that the light emitted from street lamps, especially if poorly illuminated,…

Light Modes and Human Moods

Artificial light pollution at night (ALAN) has yet again been associated with another aspect of our health — mental illness. Studies such as this have investigated the impact of outdoor light at night and its association with the emergence of depressive symptoms in the Netherlands. Analysed data revealed a positive association between the exposure to outdoor ALAN within the immediate residential environment and depressive symptoms. Other studies conducted on Japanese…

Does Light Exposure Cause Parkinson’s Disease?

Did you know that travelling light can reach our brains? This reality alongside the increasing severity of global light pollution has led to a growing interest amongst researchers to investigate the impact of artificial light on the brain in recent years. In this post, we will be looking at a newly released study by Fasciani et al. (2020), on the effect of artificial light on dopamine neurons and possibly as…

Eye Did Not See This Coming

Let’s have a quick check on your eyes right now. Are they irritated? Are you blinking excessively? Are the words glaring right off your screen? Perhaps, it’s time to give your eyes a little break… right after you finish reading this post! In this post, we will follow this study on the possible consequences of light pollution on [our] retina[s] to find out more about how light damages our eyes…

Some light in a global pandemic

Now on to a topic that I’m sure is one that is close to our hearts, let’s take a look at the global pandemic of Covid-19 and its relation to light pollution. In the video below, we see a glimpse of a more positive impact that this pandemic has on people, particularly the star gazers. With global productions coming to a slow down and more and more people spending time…

It’s Not Time to Go Into the Light

Six months following the attack on the World Trade Center, the first Tribute in Light twin beams shot into the sky in commemoration of the lives lost on September 11th, 2001. However, it was only after a few years that the impact of these strong beams was brought into light. Apparently, the concentration of artificial lights induced a mass of birds to gather and circle within the beams, extending up…

They are green, but are we?

Hidden in bushes or near roadside drains and curbs, amphibians like frogs and toads are not sheltered from the adverse effects of light pollution in our cities. It does not help that these creatures are extremely sensitive to light. The light-sensitive cells in frogs called retinal rod cells have the ability to detect single photons (to put things into perspective, a 60 watt lightbulb emits (10 to the power of…

No Nights Left for Night Swimming  

Besides negatively impacting the reproduction process, circadian rhythms and consumption patterns of aquatic creatures, light pollution can also severely impact the predator-prey relationship in aquatic organisms like aquatic insects. While not all of them might live underwater, most aquatic insects spend a larger part of their lives in water bodies, with only several days or weeks spent airborne after fully maturing. How then might these winged-creatures move if they can’t…