The SR, melatonin and circadian rhythms (the Cherry 2002 hypothesis)

In his frequently cited work (2002), Neil Cherry proposed that the Schumann resonance functions as a mediator through which the health effects of solar and geomagnetic activity are transmitted to humans — specifically via an influence on the production of melatonin and on circadian rhythms. The work is widely cited in both the popular and part of the scholarly literature and tends to be presented as a "biophysical mechanism" linking space weather with health.

It must, however, be stated explicitly that this is a correlational hypothesis, not a proven causal mechanism. Cherry's proposal links a number of separate observations into a single interpretive framework, but does not provide direct experimental proof that it is the SR (and not other components of solar/geomagnetic activity) that influences melatonin and circadian rhythms. The hypothesis has not been robustly replicated by controlled studies. It may be cited as an influential *proposal of a mechanism*, not as an established fact — and certainly no therapeutic conclusions follow from it.