Blackout babies? UNC sociologist investigated

“ ‘It is evidently pleasing to many people,’ said Richard Udry, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina who studied post-blackout birth rates, ‘to fantasize that when people are trapped by some immobilizing event which deprives them of their usual activities, most will turn to copulation.’

“Udry’s [1970] study found that the blackout babies of 1966 were…. ”

— From “Will there be a Hurricane Sandy baby boom?”  by Matt Soniak at Mental Floss (Nov. 8) 

Dr. Udry, whose career covered much more than blackout babies,  died July 29 in Chapel Hill at age 83.