THE MONTH IN WHICH YOU'RE BORN AFFECTS YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE!

Babies born in August – and are more likely to have a tough time at school.

They are 20 per cent less likely to go to a leading university compared with friends born in September.

And kids born in August are also more likely to be bullied or be unhappy at school, research by the Institute For Fiscal Studies has discovered.

It is thought that the school term starting in September is to blame because August-born kids are in the same year as those born in September – but they are almost 12 months younger.

Other studies have shown September babies have a greater chance of becoming sports stars. And if you are born in certain months you tend to go into certain professions. So does a date really make such a big difference?

Here, JENNA SLOAN reveals how the month you are born in could make or break your life – and finds out which celebs could be affected.

January

A high proportion of GPs and debt collectors are born in January.

Teen mums are more likely to give birth than any other month, according to US statistics.

There are more cases of Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s disease and epilepsy.

CELEB BIRTHS: Nick Clegg, Gary Barlow, Kate Middleton.

February

High number of artists, as well as traffic wardens.

Prone to the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

Winter babies have a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia and food allergies.

CELEB BIRTHS: Artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bob Marley, Jennifer Aniston.

March

Spring babies are thought to be at greater risk of asthma than those born at other times of the year.

March is a peak birth time for creative people including musicians.

There is a spike in births in March and an above-average number of pilots are born in this month.

CELEB BIRTHS: Lady GaGa, Justin Bieber, Bruce Willis.

April

A study has found that those born between April and July typically live an average of 101 days below their life expectancy.

April babies are more likely to develop an eating disorder, become an alcoholic or suffer from Parkinson’s.

CELEB BIRTHS: Victoria Beckham, Emma Watson.

DICTATOR BIRTHS: Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein.

May

The lowest chance of captaining England at sport. David Beckham is a rare exception.

People born in spring or early summer have an increased risk of suicide and are more likely to develop anorexia – but the risk of most diseases is slightly lower.

CELEB BIRTHS: Andy Murray, Kylie Minogue, David Beckham.

June

Babies born this month have a higher risk of developing diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

There is a slight peak in the number of chief executives whose birthday is in June. And five of the past 22 Nobel Peace Prize winners were born this month.

CELEB BIRTHS: Cheryl Cole, Prince William, Angelina Jolie, Alan Carr.

July

Summer babies are thought to be more optimistic than those born in winter, who have a gloomier outlook.

An Israeli study of 300,000 military applicants found that June and July babies have a higher risk of suffering from short-sightedness.

Train drivers and bricklayers are more likely to be born in July.

CELEB BIRTHS:Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Nelson Mandela.

August

The worst month to be born. August babies are more likely to struggle at school and score substantially lower in national achievement tests.

An above average proportion of hairdressers are born during this month.

CELEB BIRTHS:Barack Obama, Mother Teresa, Stephen Fry, Bill Clinton, Roger Federer.

September

The highest achievers in school tend to be born in September.

In 2002 scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research announced that people born in the autumn live longer than those born in spring – and are less likely to become as ill in old age.

CELEB BIRTHS: Charlie Sheen, Beyonce, Hugh Grant, Amy Winehouse.

October

More likely to live the longest – outliving those born in March by an average of 215 days.

Babies born in autumn are also reckoned to be more sporty. Those with birthdays in the springtime are said to be nine per cent less active.

CELEB BIRTHS: Wayne Rooney, Simon Cowell, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron, Zac Efron.

November

Seventeen serial killers were born in November, compared with an average of nine for other months, out of a total of more than 100 in the study.

Those born in November are most likely to believe they get a raw deal. A 2005 study found that they grow up to be the most pessimistic.

CELEB BIRTHS: Gordon Ramsay, Leonardo DiCaprio, P Diddy, Bjork.

December

You have a lower risk of asthma if your birthday is in this month. An above average number of dentists are born in December.

Winter babies are more likely to have bipolar disorder or have less educated mothers, according to a US study.

CELEB BIRTHS: Amir Khan, Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Spielberg.

                                                                                                                 Uber-facts

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TEN FACTS THAT SOUND LIKE LIES, BUT ARE COMPLETELY TRUE

Facts that sound like lies, but are completely true… Accompanied by Britney Spears GIFs.

1. When you get a kidney transplant, your kidneys are usually left in your body and a 3rd one is put in your pelvis.

And yes, if you know someone who has had two kidney transplants, they can totally have 4 kidneys. 

2. Cosmic rays from outer space frequently cause glitches in your electronics.

Your cars and phones are not safe. 

3. Your eyes have a pretty large blind spot that your brain is just filling with what it “thinks” you should be seeing.

Yes, your brain loves to mess with you. 

4. Falling coconuts kill more people every year than sharks.

Coconuts… you just don’t see them coming. 

5. Humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas.

Bananas… they’re closer to us than we thought. 

6. Strawberries aren’t really berries… But avocados are.

Your life is a lie

7. Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid.

Your life is still a lie.

8. It rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.

You’re living on the wrong planet. 

9. There once existed a flying reptile that was the size of a giraffe.

They’re extinct now so if you had no reason to be happy today, now you have one.

10. If you have 23 people in a room, there’s a 50% chance two of them have the same birthday

But there’s a 100% chance that your birthday will be more important than theirs.

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PARTS OF EARTH ARE MISSING GRAVITY!

For more than 40 years, scientists have tried to figure out what’s causing large parts of Canada, particularly the Hudson Bay region, to be “missing” gravity. In other words, gravity in the Hudson Bay area and surrounding regions is lower than it is in other parts of the world, a phenomenon first identified in the 1960s when the Earth’s global gravity fields were being charted.

Two theories have been proposed to account for this anomaly. But before we go over them, it’s important to first consider what creates gravity. At a basic level, gravity is proportional to mass. So when the mass of an area is somehow made smaller, gravity is made smaller. Gravity can vary on different parts of the Earth. Although we usually think of it as a ball, the Earth actually bulges at the Equator and gets flatter at the poles due to its rotation. The Earth’s mass is not spread out proportionally, and it can shift position over time. So scientists proposed two theories to explain how the mass of the Hudson Bay area had decreased and contributed to the area’s lower gravity.

One theory centers on a process known as convection occurring in the Earth’s mantle. The mantle is a layer of molten rock called magma and exists between 60 and 124 miles (100 to 200 km) below the surface of the Earth . Magma is extremely hot and constantly whirling and shifting, rising and falling, to create convection currents. Convection drags the Earth’s continental plates down, which decreases the mass in that area and decreases the gravity.

A new theory to account for the Hudson Bay area’s missing gravity concerns the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which covered much of present-day Canada and the northern United States. This ice sheet was almost 2 miles (3.2 km) thick in most sections, and in two areas of Hudson Bay, it was 2.3 miles (3.7 km) thick. It was also very heavy and weighed down the Earth. Over a period of 10,000 years, the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted, finally disappearing 10,000 years ago. It left a deep indentation in the Earth.

To get a better idea of what happened, think about what happens when you lightly press your finger into the surface of a cake or a piece of really springy bread. Some of it moves to the sides and there’s an indentation. But when you remove your finger, it bounces back to normal. A similar thing happened with the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the theory proposes — except the Earth isn’t so much “bouncing” back as it is rebounding very slowly (less than half an inch per year). In the meantime, the area around Hudson Bay has less mass because some of the Earth has been pushed to the sides by the ice sheet. Less mass means less gravity.

So which theory is correct? It turns out that both of them are. Convection and the ice sheet’s rebound effect are both causing some of the decrease in gravity around Hudson Bay. First, we’ll consider the ice sheet theory.

To calculate the impact of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used data gathered by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites between April 2002 and April 2006. The GRACE satellites are highly sophisticated machines, orbiting about 310 miles (500 km) above the Earth and 137 miles (220 km) apart. The satellites can measure distances down to a micron, so they can detect minor gravitational variations. When the lead satellite flies over the Hudson Bay area, the decrease in gravity causes the satellite to move slightly away from the Earth and from its sister satellite. This shift in distance is detected by the satellites and used to calculate the change in gravity. Any shifts detected can also be used to create maps of gravitational fields.

The GRACE data allowed scientists to create topographical maps approximating what Hudson Bay looked like during the last ice age, when it was covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. These maps revealed some interesting features about the area, including two bulging areas on the western and eastern sides of Hudson Bay where the ice was much thicker than the rest of the sheet. Gravity is now lower there than in other parts of the gravity-depleted bay.

Another important finding came from the GRACE data: It turns out that the ice sheet theory only accounts for 25 percent to 45 percent of the gravitational variation around Hudson Bay and the surrounding area. Subtracting the “rebound effect” from the area’s gravitational signal, scientists have determined that the remaining 55 percent to 75 percent of gravitational variation is likely due to convection.

The Hudson Bay area is going to have less gravity for a long time. It’s estimated that the Earth has to rebound more than 650 feet to get back to its original position, which should take about 5,000 years. But the rebound effect is still visible. Although sea levels are rising around the world, the sea level along Hudson Bay’s coast is dropping as the land continues to recover from the weight of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

While the mystery surrounding Canada’s gravitational anomalies has been put to rest, the study has wider implications. Scientists involved in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center study were amazed that they were able to see how the Earth looked 20,000 years ago. And by isolating the influence of the ice sheet’s rebound effect, researchers better understand how convection affects gravity and how continents change over time. Finally, the GRACE satellites have provided scientists with data on many ice sheets and glaciers. By examining climate change that took place thousands of years ago, scientists may gain a better understanding of how global warming and rising sea levels are affecting our planet today and what impact they will have on our future.

                                                                                                               Uber-facts

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Smoking 'causes hundreds of DNA changes'

Smoking leaves an "archaeological record" of the hundreds of DNA mutations it causes, scientists have discovered.

Having sequenced thousands of tumour genomes, they found a 20-a-day smoker would rack up an average of 150 mutations in every lung cell each year.

The changes are permanent, and persist even if someone gives up smoking.

Researchers say analysing tumour DNA may help explain the underlying causes of other cancers.

Pamela Pugh, 69, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. She started smoking aged 17 and quit in her early 50s.

But she said: "Even though I gave up many years ago, the effects of smoking caught up with me.

"Had I known as a teenager that smoking caused mutations which would stay with me for life then I would never had started".

Image captionPamela Pugh has advanced lung cancer and urged others never to take up smoking

'Mysterious and complex'

The study, in the journal Science, was carried out by an international group, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The analysis shows a direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime and the number of mutations in tumour DNA.

The authors found that, on average, smoking a packet of cigarettes a day led to:

• 150 mutations in each lung cell every year

• 97 in the larynx or voice box

• 23 in the mouth

• 18 in the bladder

• six in the liver

Joint lead author Prof Sir Mike Stratton, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "The more mutations there are, the higher the chance that these will occur in the key genes that we call cancer genes, which convert a normal cell into a cancer cell."

The researchers said that in tissues such as the lung, which are directly exposed to smoke, they could find the mutational signature of the chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 60 are carcinogens.

However, they could not find this same pattern in tissues such as the bladder, which are not directly exposed.

Prof Stratton said in these organs smoking seemed to be accelerating a natural mutational process, but how it did this was "mysterious and complex".

He said the same investigative approach could be used with other cancers where the underlying causes were less well understood.

"By looking in the genomes of the cancers, we will find the archaeological traces of past exposures which have been responsible for generating the cancers and that may potentially lead to prevention," he said.

Genetic disruption

Dr David Gilligan, consultant oncologist at Papworth Hospital and Roy Castle Lung Foundation trustee, said: "For every 150 mutations in the cell each year, that is 150 opportunities for lung cancer to develop.

"Lung cancer has been at the bottom of the survival league for many years, but there are many exciting developments, including immunotherapy and genetically targeted drug treatments."

Ms Pugh has received treatment at Papworth and Addenbrooke's Hospitals in Cambridgeshire.

She has just spent six months on a trial of a drug that aims to disrupt the genes that drive the growth of lung cancer.

Participants in the Matrix trial have DNA from their tumours examined to check they have genes that may respond to the drug.

But a scan has shown the tumour in Ms Pugh's right lung is growing, and she has had to leave the trial.

She will now undergo more chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

There are 35,000 deaths a year in the UK from lung cancer, and it is estimated that nine out of 10 cases are preventable.

                                                                                                                     DAWN News

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