Fwd: EXTRA! FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, JUNE 13, 2003

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Fri, 13 Jun 2003 07:01:22 -0700

EXTRA! FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, JUNE 13, 2003

 

THURSDAY JUNE 13, 2003REDFLAGSDAILY.COMEXTRA!PICK OF THE DAY

MORE EVIDENCE FOR HOMEOPATHY? (June 13)

A paper about to be published in a major physics journal, offers some evidence

for the controversial idea in homeopathy that water retains a memory of

substances dissolved in it. This view has been ridiculed by many scientists. But

then scientists, who are often applauded for their ignorance, ridicule many

things they do not understand

 

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993817

 

 

Icy claim that water has memory

19:00 11 June 03 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition

Claims do not come much more controversial than the idea that water might retain

a memory of substances once dissolved in it. The notion is central to

homeopathy, which treats patients with samples so dilute they are unlikely to

contain a single molecule of the active compound, but it is generally ridiculed

by scientists.

 

Holding such a heretical view famously cost one of France's top allergy

researchers, Jacques Benveniste, his funding, labs and reputation after his

findings were discredited in 1988.

 

Yet a paper is about to be published in the reputable journal Physica A claiming

to show that even though they should be identical, the structure of hydrogen

bonds in pure water is very different from that in homeopathic dilutions of salt

solutions. Could it be time to take the " memory " of water seriously?

 

The paper's author, Swiss chemist Louis Rey, is using thermoluminescence to

study the structure of solids. The technique involves bathing a chilled sample

with radiation. When the sample is warmed up, the stored energy is released as

light in a pattern that reflects the atomic structure of the sample.

 

 

Twin peaks

 

 

When Rey used the method on ice he saw two peaks of light, at temperatures of

around 120 K and 170 K. Rey wanted to test the idea, suggested by other

researchers, that the 170 K peak reflects the pattern of hydrogen bonds within

the ice. In his experiments he used heavy water (which contains the heavy

hydrogen isotope deuterium), because it has stronger hydrogen bonds than normal

water.

 

After studying pure samples, Rey looked at solutions of lithium chloride and

sodium chloride. Lithium chloride destroys hydrogen bonds, as does sodium

chloride, but to a lesser extent. Sure enough, the peak was smaller for a

solution of sodium chloride, and disappeared completely for a lithium chloride

solution.

 

Aware of homeopaths' claims that patterns of hydrogen bonds can survive

successive dilutions, Rey decided to test samples that had been diluted down to

a notional 10-30 grams per cubic centimetre - way beyond the point when any ions

of the original substance could remain. " We thought it would be of interest to

challenge the theory, " he says.

 

Each dilution was made according to a strict protocol, and vigorously stirred at

each stage, as homeopaths do. When Rey compared the ultra-dilute lithium and

sodium chloride solutions with pure water that had been through the same

process, the difference in their thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure

water was still there (see graph).

 

" Much to our surprise, the thermoluminescence glows of the three systems were

substantially different, " he says. He believes the result proves that the

networks of hydrogen bonds in the samples were different.

 

 

Phase transition

 

 

 

 

 

Bizarre chemical discovery gives homeopathic hint

7 November 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

DigiBio, Jacques Benveniste

Martin Chaplin, South Bank University

US National Center for Homeopathy

 

Martin Chaplin from London's South Bank University, an expert on water and

hydrogen bonding, is not so sure. " Rey's rationale for water memory seems most

unlikely, " he says. " Most hydrogen bonding in liquid water rearranges when it

freezes. "

 

He points out that the two thermoluminescence peaks Rey observed occur around

the temperatures where ice is known to undergo transitions between different

phases. He suggests that tiny amounts of impurities in the samples, perhaps due

to inefficient mixing, could be getting concentrated at the boundaries between

different phases in the ice and causing the changes in thermoluminescence.

 

But thermoluminescence expert Raphael Visocekas from the Denis Diderot

University of Paris, who watched Rey carry out some of his experiments, says he

is convinced. " The experiments showed a very nice reproducibility, " he told New

Scientist. " It is trustworthy physics. " He see no reason why patterns of

hydrogen bonds in the liquid samples should not survive freezing and affect the

molecular arrangement of the ice.

 

After his own experience, Benveniste advises caution. " This is interesting work,

but Rey's experiments were not blinded and although he says the work is

reproducible, he doesn't say how many experiments he did, " he says. " As I know

to my cost, this is such a controversial field, it is mandatory to be as

foolproof as possible. "

 

Lionel Milgrom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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