SUNSPOTS – what have they got to do with the price of bread? Quite a lot, according to a study that has found a link between the cost of wheat in medieval England and the mysterious sunspot cycle. The study, by an astrophysicist and an agricultural economist in Israel, strengthens evidence that changes in the sun over just a few years can alter the climate on Earth.
A link between sunspots and crop prices was first suggested two centuries ago. In 1801, the German-British astronomer William Herschel reported that five prolonged periods of few sunspots or “solar minima” had coincided with…
