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'''Memory of water''' is a phrase used by [[homeopathy|homeopaths]] to explain how the ethanol-based and/or water-based solutions they use might produce the results that they claim to see in their patients. Homeopathic remedies are deliberately extremely diluted, so it is unlikely that a therapeutic dose contains even a single molecule of the substance being diluted. This has led homeopaths to believe that a possible explanation for the observed responses is "memory of water"; the water somehow "remembers" the biologically active molecules that it has once been in contact with, and that "memory" produces therapeutic effects.
'''Memory of water''' is a concept postulated to explain how solutions diluted far beyond the point where they should retain any active ingredients might retain some biological activity. The concept arose from experiments by a group led by the French [[immunology|immunologist]] [[Jacques Benveniste]]; the results were published in ''Nature'', and subsequently attacked as unrepeatable - though homeopaths claim they have been reproduced.<ref>Endler PC et al. Repetitions of fundamental research models for homeopathically prepared dilutions beyond 10<sup>-23</sup>. Homeopathy (2010) 99, 25–36</ref><ref>Chirumbolo S et al. Inhibition of CD203c membrane up-regulation in human basophils by high dilutions of histamine: a controlled replication study. Inflamm Res 
DOI 10.1007/s00011-009-0044-4</ref> The phrase itself was coined by the newspaper ''Le Monde'' in its account of that work in somewhat different form as the "memory of matter" ("''la mémoire de la matière''"). The underlying notion is that [[water]] can somehow "remember" characteristics of molecules with which it had once been in contact. The concept has been widely cited by some [[Homeopathy|homeopaths]] as a possible mechanism for the purported efficacy of their remedies. Chemists and physicists, however, consider the concept to be nonsensical.  In the current scientific view, liquid water is a continuously rearranging hydrogen-bonded network with motions on the picosecond (10<sup>&minus;12</sup> s) time scale; accordingly, there is no room for a water "memory"<ref>Keutsch FN ''et al.'' (2003) The water trimer ''Chem Rev'' 103:2533-77 PMID 12848579</ref><ref>Elsaesser T (2009) Ultrafast memory loss and relaxation processes in hydrogen-bonded systems ''Biol Chem'' 390:1125-32 (Review) PMID 19663683</ref><ref>Keutsch FN, Saykally RJ (2001) Water clusters: untangling the mysteries of the liquid, one molecule at a time ''Proc Natl Acad Sci USA'' 98:10533-40 (Review) PMID 11535820</ref>


Chemists and physicists generally see this notion as nonsense. The consensus of scientists working in the field is that liquid water exists as a continuously rearranging [[hydrogen bond|hydrogen-bonded]] network with motions on the picosecond (10<sup>&minus;12</sup> s) time scale.<ref>F. N. Keutsch, J. D. Cruzan, and R. J. Saykally, Chemical Reviews, Vol.'''103''', pp. 2533-2577 (2003)</ref> A picture of a quickly rearranging network is very difficult to reconcile with liquid water structures that are sustained for more than a few picoseconds. Accordingly there is no room for a water "memory"  in the current scientific view on the liquid.
== Benveniste study (''Nature'')==
In 1988, Benveniste (and colleagues) published a paper in ''Nature'' that indicated that a solution containing a biologically active substance might retain some of that biological activity even when serially diluted beyond the point at which any of the active molecules are present. In particular, they reported effects on a biological process involved in the human [[immune system|immune]] response.<ref name=Benveniste>Davenas E ''et al.'' (1988) Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE ''Nature'' PMID 2455231</ref>


== The Benveniste study ==
Human [[basophil]]s are a [[granulocyte]] cell type accounting for 0.1–1% of white blood cells; these cells contain many "granules" which store inflammatory mediators, including [[histamine]], and they can be cultured readily and studied ''in vitro''. Exposing these cells to anti-human-IgE [[immunology|antibodies]] triggers "degranulation", a process in which the granules fuse with the plasma membrane to release histamine into the extracellular fluid. Basophil activation can be measured in several ways. First, degranulated cells can be stained and then counted; this subjective measurement is prone to variable outcomes. Second, histamine release can be measured using fluorimetric assays. Third, the fusion of granules leads to the expression of [[CD63 antigen]]; the percentage of basophils that express CD63 can be determined with [[flow cytometry]], and correlates well with histamine release.


In 1988, a French immunologist, [[Jacques Benveniste]], and a group of colleagues published a paper<ref name=Benveniste>E. Davenas, F. Beauvais, J. Arnara, M. Oberbaum, B. Robinzon, A. Miadonna, A. Tedeschi, B. Pomeranz, P. Fortner, P. Belon, J. Sainte-Laudy, B. Poitevin and J. Benveniste, ''Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE'', Nature, Vol. '''333''',  pp. 816-818, 30th June, 1988.[http://www.digibio.com/cgi-bin/node.pl?lg=us&nd=n4_1 Free text on DigiBio site]. [http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/333816a0  Non-free text on Nature site]</ref> in the prestigious English journal ''Nature''. Their data indicated that diluted water, ethanol or propanol might retain some qualities of various materials that had once been dissolved in it. In particular, they claimed to have measured effects on human immune response.
Benveniste reported that very high dilutions of anti-human-IgE (containing no molecules of the antibody) could induce degranulation of basophils. He concluded that it was the 'configuration' of molecules in the water that was biologically active. The French newspaper ''Le Monde'' covered this, referring to ''"la mémoire de la matière"'' (the memory of matter) and ''le souvenir de molécules biologiquement actives'' (recollection [by water] of biologically active molecules). In English, the phrase that became widespread was "memory of water". ''Le Monde'' made the paper a front page story, pointing out that if this work were correct, it would overthrow many of the foundations of physics.


Human [[basophil]]s are a rare [[granulocyte]] cell type accounting for 0.1–1% of white blood cells; these cells contain large numbers of "granules" which store inflammatory mediators, including in particular [[histamine]]. These cells can be cultured readily and studied ''in vitro''. In these cells, exposure to anti-human-IgE [[antibodies]] triggers a "degranulation" process in which the granules fuse with the plasma membrane to release their contents, including histamine, into the extracellular fluid. At high concentrations (>10<sup>−6</sup> M) histamine binds to H<sub>2</sub> receptors on the surface of the basophils, and regulates the basophil degranulation by feedback inhibition. Basophil activation can be measured in several different ways. First, degranulated cells can be stained and then counted; this is a subjective measurement and is prone to variable outcomes depending on the observer. Second, histamine release into the culture medium can be measured using fluorimetric assays. Third, the fusion of cytoplasmatic granules leads to the expression of the marker [[CD63]] on the  surface of the basophils; the percentage of basophils that express CD63 can be determined with [[flow-cytometry]], and correlates well with histamine release.
===Follow-up investigations===
''Nature'' published the article with two unprecedented conditions: first, that the results must first be confirmed by other laboratories; second, that a team selected by ''Nature'' be allowed to investigate the Benveniste laboratory after publication. Benveniste accepted these conditions; the results were replicated by labs in Italy, Canada, Israel and France, and the article was accompanied by an editorial titled "When to believe the unbelievable."


Benveniste claimed that he and his colleagues found evidence that very high dilutions of anti-immunoglobulin E (essentially containing only water) had an effect on the degranulation of human basophils. He, therefore, concluded that it was the 'configuration' of molecules in water that was biologically active.  This added support to the homeopathic claim that there was a quality of water that allowed for extremely high dilutions of chemicals to remain therapeutic even without any unmeasurable evidence of the original material.<ref name=Benveniste /> 
The follow-up investigation was conducted by a team including the editor of ''Nature'', John Maddox, American scientific fraud investigator and chemist Walter Stewart, and "professional [[pseudoscience]] debunker" [[James Randi]]. With the cooperation of Benveniste's  team, under double-blind conditions, they failed to replicate the results. Benveniste refused to withdraw his claims, and in July 1988 the team published a detailed critique of Benveniste’s study.  They concluded that the experiments were badly controlled statistically, that measurements that conflicted with the claim had been excluded, that there was insufficient avoidance of contamination, and that there were questions of undisclosed conflict of interest, as the salaries of two coauthors of the article had been paid under a contract with the homeopathic manufacturing company ''Boiron et Cie''.<ref name=Maddox>{{cite journal
 
The French newspaper ''Le Monde'' covered this, referring to ''"la mémoire de la matière"'' (the memory of matter) and ''le souvenir de molécules biologiquement actives'' (recollection [by water] of biologically active molecules). In English, however, the phrase that became widespread was "memory of water". Le Monde considered the paper important, making it a front page story, and correctly pointing out that if this work were correct, it would overthrow many of the foundations of physics.
 
=== Follow-up ===
 
''Nature'' published the article with two unprecedented conditions: first, that the results must first be confirmed by other laboratories; second, that a team selected by ''Nature'' be allowed to investigate his laboratory following publication. Benveniste accepted these conditions; the results were replicated in Milan, Italy; in Toronto, Canada; in Tel-Aviv, Israel and in Marseille, France, and the article was accompanied by an editorial titled "When to believe the unbelievable."
 
After publication, a follow-up investigation was conducted by a team including the editor of ''Nature'', Dr John Maddox, American scientific fraud investigator and chemist Walter Stewart, and "professional [[pseudoscience]] debunker" [[James Randi]]. With the cooperation of Benveniste's  team, under double-blind conditions, they failed to replicate the results. Benveniste refused to withdraw his claims, and the team published in the July 1988 a detailed critique of Benveniste’s study.<ref name=Maddox>{{cite journal
   | last =Maddox
   | last =Maddox
   | first =John
   | first =| coauthors ''et al.''  | title =‘High-dilution’ experiments a delusion
  | coauthors =James Randi and Walter W. Stewart
  | title =‘High-dilution’ experiments a delusion
   | journal =Nature
   | journal =Nature
   | volume =334
   | volume =334
   | pages =287–290
   | pages =287–290
  | date =28 July 1988
   | url =http://br.geocities.com/criticandokardec/benveniste02.pdf
   | url =http://br.geocities.com/criticandokardec/benveniste02.pdf
   | doi =10.1038/334287a0 |format=PDF}}</ref> They claimed that the experiments were badly controlled statistically, that measurements that conflicted with the claim had been excluded, that there was insufficient avoidance of contamination, and that there were questions of undisclosed conflict of interest, as the salaries of two coauthors of the published article were paid for under a contract with the French company ''Boiron et Cie''.<ref name=Maddox/>.
   | doi =10.1038/334287a0 |format=PDF}}</ref>
 
Another group led by Benveniste has reproduced the results<ref>Poitevin B., Davenas E., Benveniste J., "In vitro immunological degranulation of human basophils is modulated by lung histamine and Apis mellifica", Brit. J. Clin. Pharmacol., 1988,
25: 439-444. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1387805/]</ref> while others have failed to reproduce the effects<ref>S. J. Hirst, N. A. Hayes, J. Burridge, F. L. Pearce, J. C. Foreman, ''Human basophil degranulation is not triggered by very dilute antiserum against human IgE'', Nature vol. '''366''', pp. 525&ndash;527 (1993) [http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/366525a0 doi]
</ref><ref> Guggisberg AG, Baumgartner SM, Tschopp CM, and  Heusser P (2005) Replication study concerning the effects of homeopathic dilutions of histamine on human basophil degranulation in vitro. ''Complement Ther Med'' 13:91-100.</ref>. Beneveniste et al contend that the same conditions were not met in those laboratories.
 
Benveniste has never retracted his claims. In the same issue of ''Nature'' that carried the critique, Benveniste vigorously attacked the ''Nature'' team’s "mockery of scientific inquiry."<ref>J. Benveniste,  ''Dr Jacques Benveniste replies'', News and views, ''Nature'', vol. '''334''' p. 291 (1988) [http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/334291a0 doi]  </ref>. He has maintained his position in later publications as well.


=== Benveniste's subsequent claims ===
Another group led by Benveniste replicated the findings,<ref>Poitevin B ''et al.'' (1988) In vitro immunological degranulation of human basophils is modulated by lung histamine and Apis mellifica ''Brit J Clin Pharmacol'' [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1387805/ 25: 439-44]</ref> but other groups failed to reproduce the effects.<ref>Hirst SJ ''et al.'' (1993) Human basophil degranulation is not triggered by very dilute antiserum against human IgE ''Nature'' [http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/366525a0 doi 366:525-7]</ref><ref>Guggisberg AG ''et al.'' (2005) Replication study concerning the effects of homeopathic dilutions of histamine on human basophil degranulation in vitro. ''Complement Ther Med'' 13:91-100</ref> Benveniste  contended that the same conditions were not met in those laboratories, and he never retracted his claims. In the issue of ''Nature'' that carried the critique, Benveniste vigorously attacked the ''Nature'' team’s "mockery of scientific inquiry."<ref>Benveniste J (1988) Dr Jacques Benveniste replies ''Nature''  [http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/334291a0 doi 334:291]</ref>


Benveniste's subsequent work on what he called "Digital Biology" attracted even more criticism by the scientific community. Based on the assumption that molecules emit [[electromagnetic radiation]] in the frequency range 20 Hz to 20 KHz, the same range as sound waves audible by humans, Benveniste argued<ref>{{citation
After the ''Nature'' debacle, Benveniste became more and more isolated scientifically, and some of his colleagues called for him to resign. He did not lose his job at the French ''National Institute of Health and Medical Research'' (INSERM), but funding was progressively withdrawn, and his lab was eventually closed. According to Lionel Milgrom, a chemist and homoeopath who corresponded with Benveniste, "The knocks that he took made him suspicious of virtually everyone". Yet, despite the widespread scepticism, and despite the failure of several other groups to corroborate his findings, Benveniste continued to study the 'memory of water'. According to [[Brian Josephson]] (who, after winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973 became a champion of iconoclastic ideas) "That's what good scientists do...He probably became more determined because of the opposition."<ref>[http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2804%2917339-X/fulltext#article_upsell Benveniste obituary in ''Nature'']</ref>
| author = Jacques Benevenistei
| title = Understanding Digital Biology
| date = 1998
| url = http://www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/articles/benveniste.shtml
}}</ref>
that electromagnetic vibrations are "signals exchanged among molecules" that are used by living things to convey information.


== Other scientists ==
== Other scientists ==
Independently, other studies have claimed to reproduce Benveniste's experiments, including one published in the ''Homeopathy'' journal,<ref>Endler PC et al. Repetitions of fundamental research models for homeopathically prepared dilutions beyond 10<sup>-23</sup>. Homeopathy (2010) 99, 25–36</ref><ref>Chirumbolo S et al. Inhibition of CD203c membrane up-regulation in human basophils by high dilutions of histamine: a controlled replication study. Inflamm Res 
DOI 10.1007/s00011-009-0044-4</ref> edited by homeopathic doctor [[Peter Fisher]] (see also ''[[Memory of water#Homeopathic coverage|Homeopathic coverage]], below).


In 2002 Louis Rey, a swiss chemist from Lausanne, reported results of experiments
In 2003 Louis Rey, a chemist from Lausanne, reported that frozen samples of lithium and sodium chloride solutions prepared according to homeopathic prescriptions showed &mdash; after being exposed to radiation &mdash; different thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure water. Rey claimed that this suggested that the networks of hydrogen bonds in homeopathic dilutions were different. <ref>Rey L (2003)Thermoluminescence of ultra-high dilutions of lithium chloride and sodium chloride ''Physica A'' 323:67–74</ref>
where frozen samples of lithium and sodium chloride solutions prepared according to homeopathic prescriptions
These results have never been replicated and are not generally accepted - even Benveniste criticised them, pointing out that they were not blinded <ref>[http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3817 Icy claim that water has memory] ''New Scientist''  11 June 2003</ref>
showed &mdash; after being exposed to radiation &mdash; different thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure water.
According to Rey this proves that the networks of hydrogen bonds in homeopathic dilutions were different, as postulated by homeopathic theory.
These results are not generally accepted:
While other explanations for the observed effect were suggested,  
the experiments itself are criticized as not validated statistically, and they also could not be verified.


Moreover, in 2004, contradicting results were obtained by a research group (Berlin and Toronto) around Thomas Elsaesser.
In January 2009, [[Luc Montagnier]], the Nobel Laureate virologist who led the team that discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), claimed (in a paper published in a journal that he set up, which seems to have avoided conventional peer review as it was accepted three days after submission) that the DNA of [[pathogen|pathogenic]] bacteria and viruses massively diluted in water emit radio waves that he can detect.<ref>Montagnier L ''et al.'' (2009) Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences ''Interdiscip Sci'' 1:81-90 PMID 20640822</ref> This, he claimed, can also be used to detect the medicine in a homeopathic remedy.<ref name=montagnier>  {{Citation     
Their experiments showed that the hydrogen bonds change very fast, even faster than previously expected,
thus supporting the view that water has no memory.
 
In January 2009, [[Luc Montagnier]], the Nobel Laureate French virologist who discovered HIV, claimed that the DNA of [[pathogenic]] bacteria and viruses massively dissolved in water emit radio waves that he can detect. This, he claimed, can also be used to detect the medicine in a homeopathic remedy.<ref name=montagnier>  {{Citation     
|title=Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost     
|title=Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost     
|newspaper=The Australian     
|newspaper=The Australian     
Line 70: Line 43:
|date= 07 June 2010     
|date= 07 June 2010     
|journal= Wired     
|journal= Wired     
|url= http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/07/start/top-6-unconventional-post-nobel-prize-claims?page=all }}</ref> The claim has been received with skepticism in the scientific community.
|url= http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/07/start/top-6-unconventional-post-nobel-prize-claims?page=all }}</ref> The device used to detect these signals was developed by Jacques Benveniste, and was independently tested, with the co-operation of the Benveniste team, at the request of the United States [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]]. That investigation was unable to replicate any effects of digital signals using the device.<ref>Jonas WB ''et al.'' (2006) Can specific biological signals be digitized? ''FASEB J'' 20:23-8 PMID 16394263</ref>
 
In 2010, at the age of 78, Montagnier announced that he would take on the leadership of a new research institute at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, where he plans to continue this work. He claims that the findings "are very reproducible and we are waiting for confirmation by other labs", but said, in an interview with ''Science'', "There is a kind of fear around this topic in Europe. I am told that some people have reproduced Benveniste's results, but they are afraid to publish it because of the intellectual terror from people who don't understand it." Montagnier had called Benveniste "a modern [[Galileo]]", but the problem was that "his results weren't 100% reproducible".<ref>Newsmaker interview: Luc Montagnier. French Nobelist escapes 'intellectual terror' to pursue radical ideas in China. Interview by Martin Enserink ''Science'' 2010 Dec 24;330:1732</ref>


== Other healers ==
== Other healers ==
 
Claims about supernatural or mystical qualities of water have been made by some "alternative healers". For example, practitioners of the Silva Method<ref>{{citation
Some other healers make similar claims. For example, practitioners of Reiki,<ref>{{citation
| author = James L. Oschman
| title = Science and The Human Energy Field | url = http://www.reiki.org/download/OschmanReprint2.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{citation
| author = Ignat Ignatov
| title = BIOPHYSICAL EXPERIMENTS PROVE THE REALITY OF REIKI INFLUENCE | url = http://www.isabellapetri.de/Biophysical%20Experiments.html}}</ref> Qigong,<ref>{{citation
| author = Tom Rogers
| title = Qigong - Energy Medicine for the New Millennium | url = http://www.qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/QigongEMedicine.pdf}}</ref> Pranic healers<ref name=PHCG>{{citation
| author = LocalHealers.com | title = Pranic Healing Career Guide | url = http://www.localhealers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=16&type=careercenter}}</ref> and the Silva Method<ref>{{citation
| author = Laura Silva Quesada
| author = Laura Silva Quesada
| title = Healing Qualities of Water and Useful Applications
| title = Healing Qualities of Water and Useful Applications
| url = http://www.silvamethod.com/ne/publications/Healing-Qualities-of-Water.pdf}}</ref> graduates claim to "program" water to heal a person, long after the healer has programmed the water and is personally unavailable.
| url = http://www.silvamethod.com/ne/publications/Healing-Qualities-of-Water.pdf}}</ref> claim to "program" water to heal a person, long after the healer has programmed the water and is personally unavailable. These alternative healers focus on the effects of energies, generated by people, on water. In [[Qigong]] (in Traditional Chinese Medicine):


These alternative healers, however, do not make molecular arguments, but focus on the effects of energies, generated by people, on water. "The effects of Pranic Healing are hard to corroborate because the transfer of energy is inevitably subjective. However, researchers have attempted to bring Pranic healing into the research light... Dr. Hazel Wardha along side internationally recognized researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto."<ref name=PHCG />
{{quotation|"Subtle, or vibrational, energy is broadly defined as energy that is not generally recognized by mainstream physics and for which there are no means of measurement. ...
It is fundamental to many unexplained phenomena such as the power of spirituality and prayer, the effect of remote intention, the operation of homeopathy, and the functioning of the mind/body information network..."<ref>{{citation
| author = Tom Rogers
| title = Qigong - Energy Medicine for the New Millennium | url = http://www.qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/QigongEMedicine.pdf}}</ref>}}


Masaru Emoto is a Japanese author who in a series of books &mdash; beginning with ''Messages from Water'' (1999) &mdash;
Masaru Emoto built a business selling water products. In a series of books &mdash; beginning with ''Messages from Water'' (1999) &mdash; he claimed that ice crystals reflect the words, music, pictures &mdash; even thoughts and intentions &mdash;to which the droplets of water were exposed before being frozen. He also claimed to find effects of 'healing energy' on water ([[Pranic Healing]]):
claims that ice crystals reflect the words, music, pictures &mdash; even thoughts and intentions &mdash;
{{quotation|"After the healers projected their energy toward the water, ... the water that was healed with Pranic energy had impeccable crystal formation while the tap water's internal structure was chaotic."<ref name=PHCG>{{citation
to which the droplets of water were exposed before being frozen. He has extensive collections of photos of water crystals, taken with a microscope, with which he illustrates his thesis.
| author = LocalHealers.com | title = Pranic Healing Career Guide | url = http://www.localhealers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=16&type=careercenter}}</ref>}}


According to Emoto there are "many differences in the crystalline structure of the water" depending on the type of water source, which were taken from all over the world. For example, a water sample from a "pristine mountain" stream would purportedly show a "geometric" design that is "beautifully" shaped when frozen. On the other hand, "polluted water" sources will supposedly show a "definite distortion" and will be "randomly formed".
Emoto makes some remarkable claims:
 
{{quotation|"So where is the solution to the problem of global warming in this book? Well, because it shows that we can extract energy out of water. For example, the crystal photograph on the cover is shining beautifully. This is a result of when the cameraman and the water resonated."<ref>{{cite web|title=How to Take a Water Crystal Photograph|work=[http://www.masaru-emoto.net/ OFFICE MASARU EMOTO]|url=http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/ediary200609.html#0915|accessdate=March 24, 2010}}</ref>}}
Emoto makes some remarkably strong claims for his alleged discoveries:
 
{{quotation| So where is the solution to the problem of global warming in this book? Well, because it shows that we can extract energy out of water. For example, the crystal photograph on the cover is shining beautifully. This is a result of when the cameraman and the water resonated.
And light is energy itself. Therefore, this book is a proof that energy can be extracted not only from fire, but from water.}}
 
{{quotation| Global warming happened because we kept on using energy from coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear atoms, all forms of fire. As long as we use fire, we will eventually not be able to live on earth. And I found an energy source that will replace this fire.<ref>{{cite web|title=How to Take a Water Crystal Photograph|work=[http://www.masaru-emoto.net/ OFFICE MASARU EMOTO]|url=http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/ediary200609.html#0915|accessdate=March 24, 2010}}</ref>}}
 
In spite of the fact that his theory is not supported by scientific experiments
he propagates his ideas in talks given worldwide and has built a business around it by selling water products.


== Homeopathic coverage ==
== Homeopathic coverage ==
 
To most orthodox scientists, the "memory of water" is not something that deserves serious consideration; the only evidence is the flawed Benveniste work. By contrast, the notion of "memory of water" has been taken seriously among [[homeopathy|homeopaths]]. For them, it seemed to be part of a possible explanation of why some of their remedies might work.
The notion of "memory of water" is taken quite seriously among [[homeopathy|homeopaths]]. For them, it provides an explanation of why some of their remedies work, and raises some very interesting questions &mdash; how does one explain the phenomenon, and what will the explanations tell us about more general issues of the structure of liquids, or indeed of matter? It is clear that we will need some new physics to explain it.
An overview of the issues surrounding the memory of water was the subject of a special issue of ''Homeopathy.'' In an editorial, the editor of ''Homeopathy'',  Peter Fisher, acknowledged that Benveniste’s original method does not yield reproducible results and declared  "...the memory of water is a bad memory: it casts a long shadow over homeopathy and is just about all that many scientists recall about the scientific investigation of homeopathy, equating it with poor or even fraudulent science."  The issue was an attempt to restore some credibility to the notion with articles proposing various, very different theories of water memory, such as: electromagnetic exchange of information between molecules, breaking of temporal symmetry, thermoluminescence, entanglement described by a new quantum theory, formation of hydrogen peroxide, clathrate formation, etc. Some of the proposed mechanisms would require overthrowing much of 20th century physics.<ref name="Homeopathy2007">{{citation
 
To a more orthodox scientist, it is also clear that explaining the phenomenon would require some new physics. What is not clear is that there is anything that needs explaining; the only evidence is the flawed Benveniste work, and that is not nearly enough to contemplate fundamental changes in physics.
 
An overview of the issues surrounding the memory of water and its relationship to homeopathic medicine was the subject of a special issue of the leading journal on homeopathy.<ref name="Homeopathy2007">{{citation
  | editor = Martin Chaplin
  | editor = Martin Chaplin
  | date = 2007
  | date = 2007
  | title = The Memory of Water ''Homeopathy.'' 96:141-230}}  
  | title = The Memory of Water ''Homeopathy'' 96:141-230}}  
::Copies of the articles in this special issue are freely available on a private website, along with discussion. [http://www.badscience.net/?p=490 Homeopathy Journal Club] hosted by Bad Science, a blog by Ben Goldacre</ref> The articles in this issue propose widely varying mechanisms for water memory, such as: electromagnetic exchange of information between molecules, breaking of temporal symmetry, thermoluminescence, entanglement described by a new quantum theory, formation of hydrogen peroxide, clathrate formation, etc. without any mechanism singularly standing out as the definitive explanation. Some of the proposed mechanisms require revolutionary new physical principles overthrowing much of 20th century physics. Remarkably, all explanations concentrate on water and its alleged special properties, the fact that&mdash;according to Benveniste ''et al.''&mdash;ethanol and propanol also have  memory is completely ignored.
::Copies of the articles in this special issue are freely available on a private website, along with discussion. [http://www.badscience.net/?p=490 Homeopathy Journal Club] hosted by Bad Science, a blog by Ben Goldacre</ref>
 
In 2010, a team of scientists from India found that some commercially manufactured metal-derived homeopathic remedies in fact contained
nanoparticles of the metals and their aggregates, despite the claimed high-dilution.<ref>Chikramane PS ''et al.'' (2010) {http://www.katonics.com/uploads/2010%20-%20%20Paper%201%20-%20Extreme%20homeopathic%20dilutions%20retain%20starting%20%20materials-A%20nanoparticulate%20perspective.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WXX-518T4YP-3&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3742c7a676d864d32688d36d6edd30a4&searchtype=a Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: A nanoparticulate perspective]
''Homeopathy'' 99:231-42</ref> In 2015, a study in India found that homeopathic remedies in fact contained
nanoparticles of the resource medicine, despite the claimed high-dilution.<ref>{{cite news  |title=Not ‘sugar pills’, nano particles found in diluted homeo drugs |url=http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/Not-sugar-pills-nano-particles-found-in-diluted-homeo-drugs/articleshow/46788906.cms |work=Times News Network |publisher=Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. |date=3 April 2015 |accessdate=4 April 2015 }}</ref> Another team of scientists found that Quartz, Sulfur and Copper Sulfate-derived homeopathic remedies in fact contained
nanoparticles of those substances and their aggregates, despite the claimed high-dilution.<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3137246/ Homeopathic Preparations of Quartz, Sulfur and Copper Sulfate Assessed by UV-Spectroscopy]
''Pub Med'' 99:231-42</ref> Traditional homeopathic preparation methods are very different from the controlled microchemical procedures used for serial dilutions in scientific laboratories, and the assumption that homeopathic remedies are in fact diluted to the extent claimed may be wrong. As pointed out in an editorial in ''Homeopathy'', "The skeptics have gotten the homeopathic world so busy trying to defend various theories of water memory that we have overlooked the possibility that some of the material somehow actually persists in highly diluted homeopathic medicines."<ref>Ives JA ''et al.'' (2010) Do serial dilutions really dilute? ''Homeopathy'' 99:229-30 PMID 20970091</ref>


==References==
==References==
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Memory of water is a concept postulated to explain how solutions diluted far beyond the point where they should retain any active ingredients might retain some biological activity. The concept arose from experiments by a group led by the French immunologist Jacques Benveniste; the results were published in Nature, and subsequently attacked as unrepeatable - though homeopaths claim they have been reproduced.[1][2] The phrase itself was coined by the newspaper Le Monde in its account of that work in somewhat different form as the "memory of matter" ("la mémoire de la matière"). The underlying notion is that water can somehow "remember" characteristics of molecules with which it had once been in contact. The concept has been widely cited by some homeopaths as a possible mechanism for the purported efficacy of their remedies. Chemists and physicists, however, consider the concept to be nonsensical. In the current scientific view, liquid water is a continuously rearranging hydrogen-bonded network with motions on the picosecond (10−12 s) time scale; accordingly, there is no room for a water "memory"[3][4][5]

Benveniste study (Nature)

In 1988, Benveniste (and colleagues) published a paper in Nature that indicated that a solution containing a biologically active substance might retain some of that biological activity even when serially diluted beyond the point at which any of the active molecules are present. In particular, they reported effects on a biological process involved in the human immune response.[6]

Human basophils are a granulocyte cell type accounting for 0.1–1% of white blood cells; these cells contain many "granules" which store inflammatory mediators, including histamine, and they can be cultured readily and studied in vitro. Exposing these cells to anti-human-IgE antibodies triggers "degranulation", a process in which the granules fuse with the plasma membrane to release histamine into the extracellular fluid. Basophil activation can be measured in several ways. First, degranulated cells can be stained and then counted; this subjective measurement is prone to variable outcomes. Second, histamine release can be measured using fluorimetric assays. Third, the fusion of granules leads to the expression of CD63 antigen; the percentage of basophils that express CD63 can be determined with flow cytometry, and correlates well with histamine release.

Benveniste reported that very high dilutions of anti-human-IgE (containing no molecules of the antibody) could induce degranulation of basophils. He concluded that it was the 'configuration' of molecules in the water that was biologically active. The French newspaper Le Monde covered this, referring to "la mémoire de la matière" (the memory of matter) and le souvenir de molécules biologiquement actives (recollection [by water] of biologically active molecules). In English, the phrase that became widespread was "memory of water". Le Monde made the paper a front page story, pointing out that if this work were correct, it would overthrow many of the foundations of physics.

Follow-up investigations

Nature published the article with two unprecedented conditions: first, that the results must first be confirmed by other laboratories; second, that a team selected by Nature be allowed to investigate the Benveniste laboratory after publication. Benveniste accepted these conditions; the results were replicated by labs in Italy, Canada, Israel and France, and the article was accompanied by an editorial titled "When to believe the unbelievable."

The follow-up investigation was conducted by a team including the editor of Nature, John Maddox, American scientific fraud investigator and chemist Walter Stewart, and "professional pseudoscience debunker" James Randi. With the cooperation of Benveniste's team, under double-blind conditions, they failed to replicate the results. Benveniste refused to withdraw his claims, and in July 1988 the team published a detailed critique of Benveniste’s study. They concluded that the experiments were badly controlled statistically, that measurements that conflicted with the claim had been excluded, that there was insufficient avoidance of contamination, and that there were questions of undisclosed conflict of interest, as the salaries of two coauthors of the article had been paid under a contract with the homeopathic manufacturing company Boiron et Cie.[7]

Another group led by Benveniste replicated the findings,[8] but other groups failed to reproduce the effects.[9][10] Benveniste contended that the same conditions were not met in those laboratories, and he never retracted his claims. In the issue of Nature that carried the critique, Benveniste vigorously attacked the Nature team’s "mockery of scientific inquiry."[11]

After the Nature debacle, Benveniste became more and more isolated scientifically, and some of his colleagues called for him to resign. He did not lose his job at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), but funding was progressively withdrawn, and his lab was eventually closed. According to Lionel Milgrom, a chemist and homoeopath who corresponded with Benveniste, "The knocks that he took made him suspicious of virtually everyone". Yet, despite the widespread scepticism, and despite the failure of several other groups to corroborate his findings, Benveniste continued to study the 'memory of water'. According to Brian Josephson (who, after winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973 became a champion of iconoclastic ideas) "That's what good scientists do...He probably became more determined because of the opposition."[12]

Other scientists

Independently, other studies have claimed to reproduce Benveniste's experiments, including one published in the Homeopathy journal,[13][14] edited by homeopathic doctor Peter Fisher (see also Homeopathic coverage, below).

In 2003 Louis Rey, a chemist from Lausanne, reported that frozen samples of lithium and sodium chloride solutions prepared according to homeopathic prescriptions showed — after being exposed to radiation — different thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure water. Rey claimed that this suggested that the networks of hydrogen bonds in homeopathic dilutions were different. [15] These results have never been replicated and are not generally accepted - even Benveniste criticised them, pointing out that they were not blinded [16]

In January 2009, Luc Montagnier, the Nobel Laureate virologist who led the team that discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), claimed (in a paper published in a journal that he set up, which seems to have avoided conventional peer review as it was accepted three days after submission) that the DNA of pathogenic bacteria and viruses massively diluted in water emit radio waves that he can detect.[17] This, he claimed, can also be used to detect the medicine in a homeopathic remedy.[18][19] The device used to detect these signals was developed by Jacques Benveniste, and was independently tested, with the co-operation of the Benveniste team, at the request of the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That investigation was unable to replicate any effects of digital signals using the device.[20]

In 2010, at the age of 78, Montagnier announced that he would take on the leadership of a new research institute at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, where he plans to continue this work. He claims that the findings "are very reproducible and we are waiting for confirmation by other labs", but said, in an interview with Science, "There is a kind of fear around this topic in Europe. I am told that some people have reproduced Benveniste's results, but they are afraid to publish it because of the intellectual terror from people who don't understand it." Montagnier had called Benveniste "a modern Galileo", but the problem was that "his results weren't 100% reproducible".[21]

Other healers

Claims about supernatural or mystical qualities of water have been made by some "alternative healers". For example, practitioners of the Silva Method[22] claim to "program" water to heal a person, long after the healer has programmed the water and is personally unavailable. These alternative healers focus on the effects of energies, generated by people, on water. In Qigong (in Traditional Chinese Medicine):

"Subtle, or vibrational, energy is broadly defined as energy that is not generally recognized by mainstream physics and for which there are no means of measurement. ...

It is fundamental to many unexplained phenomena such as the power of spirituality and prayer, the effect of remote intention, the operation of homeopathy, and the functioning of the mind/body information network..."[23]

Masaru Emoto built a business selling water products. In a series of books — beginning with Messages from Water (1999) — he claimed that ice crystals reflect the words, music, pictures — even thoughts and intentions —to which the droplets of water were exposed before being frozen. He also claimed to find effects of 'healing energy' on water (Pranic Healing):

"After the healers projected their energy toward the water, ... the water that was healed with Pranic energy had impeccable crystal formation while the tap water's internal structure was chaotic."[24]

Emoto makes some remarkable claims:

"So where is the solution to the problem of global warming in this book? Well, because it shows that we can extract energy out of water. For example, the crystal photograph on the cover is shining beautifully. This is a result of when the cameraman and the water resonated."[25]

Homeopathic coverage

To most orthodox scientists, the "memory of water" is not something that deserves serious consideration; the only evidence is the flawed Benveniste work. By contrast, the notion of "memory of water" has been taken seriously among homeopaths. For them, it seemed to be part of a possible explanation of why some of their remedies might work. An overview of the issues surrounding the memory of water was the subject of a special issue of Homeopathy. In an editorial, the editor of Homeopathy, Peter Fisher, acknowledged that Benveniste’s original method does not yield reproducible results and declared "...the memory of water is a bad memory: it casts a long shadow over homeopathy and is just about all that many scientists recall about the scientific investigation of homeopathy, equating it with poor or even fraudulent science." The issue was an attempt to restore some credibility to the notion with articles proposing various, very different theories of water memory, such as: electromagnetic exchange of information between molecules, breaking of temporal symmetry, thermoluminescence, entanglement described by a new quantum theory, formation of hydrogen peroxide, clathrate formation, etc. Some of the proposed mechanisms would require overthrowing much of 20th century physics.[26]

In 2010, a team of scientists from India found that some commercially manufactured metal-derived homeopathic remedies in fact contained nanoparticles of the metals and their aggregates, despite the claimed high-dilution.[27][28] In 2015, a study in India found that homeopathic remedies in fact contained nanoparticles of the resource medicine, despite the claimed high-dilution.[29] Another team of scientists found that Quartz, Sulfur and Copper Sulfate-derived homeopathic remedies in fact contained nanoparticles of those substances and their aggregates, despite the claimed high-dilution.[30] Traditional homeopathic preparation methods are very different from the controlled microchemical procedures used for serial dilutions in scientific laboratories, and the assumption that homeopathic remedies are in fact diluted to the extent claimed may be wrong. As pointed out in an editorial in Homeopathy, "The skeptics have gotten the homeopathic world so busy trying to defend various theories of water memory that we have overlooked the possibility that some of the material somehow actually persists in highly diluted homeopathic medicines."[31]

References

  1. Endler PC et al. Repetitions of fundamental research models for homeopathically prepared dilutions beyond 10-23. Homeopathy (2010) 99, 25–36
  2. Chirumbolo S et al. Inhibition of CD203c membrane up-regulation in human basophils by high dilutions of histamine: a controlled replication study. Inflamm Res DOI 10.1007/s00011-009-0044-4
  3. Keutsch FN et al. (2003) The water trimer Chem Rev 103:2533-77 PMID 12848579
  4. Elsaesser T (2009) Ultrafast memory loss and relaxation processes in hydrogen-bonded systems Biol Chem 390:1125-32 (Review) PMID 19663683
  5. Keutsch FN, Saykally RJ (2001) Water clusters: untangling the mysteries of the liquid, one molecule at a time Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:10533-40 (Review) PMID 11535820
  6. Davenas E et al. (1988) Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE Nature PMID 2455231
  7. Maddox, J. "‘High-dilution’ experiments a delusion" (PDF). Nature 334: 287–290. DOI:10.1038/334287a0. Research Blogging.
  8. Poitevin B et al. (1988) In vitro immunological degranulation of human basophils is modulated by lung histamine and Apis mellifica Brit J Clin Pharmacol 25: 439-44
  9. Hirst SJ et al. (1993) Human basophil degranulation is not triggered by very dilute antiserum against human IgE Nature doi 366:525-7
  10. Guggisberg AG et al. (2005) Replication study concerning the effects of homeopathic dilutions of histamine on human basophil degranulation in vitro. Complement Ther Med 13:91-100
  11. Benveniste J (1988) Dr Jacques Benveniste replies Nature doi 334:291
  12. Benveniste obituary in Nature
  13. Endler PC et al. Repetitions of fundamental research models for homeopathically prepared dilutions beyond 10-23. Homeopathy (2010) 99, 25–36
  14. Chirumbolo S et al. Inhibition of CD203c membrane up-regulation in human basophils by high dilutions of histamine: a controlled replication study. Inflamm Res DOI 10.1007/s00011-009-0044-4
  15. Rey L (2003)Thermoluminescence of ultra-high dilutions of lithium chloride and sodium chloride Physica A 323:67–74
  16. Icy claim that water has memory New Scientist 11 June 2003
  17. Montagnier L et al. (2009) Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences Interdiscip Sci 1:81-90 PMID 20640822
  18. "Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost", The Australian, July 5, 2010
  19. Alexey Kovalev (07 June 2010), "Top 6 unconventional post-Nobel Prize claims", Wired
  20. Jonas WB et al. (2006) Can specific biological signals be digitized? FASEB J 20:23-8 PMID 16394263
  21. Newsmaker interview: Luc Montagnier. French Nobelist escapes 'intellectual terror' to pursue radical ideas in China. Interview by Martin Enserink Science 2010 Dec 24;330:1732
  22. Laura Silva Quesada, Healing Qualities of Water and Useful Applications
  23. Tom Rogers, Qigong - Energy Medicine for the New Millennium
  24. LocalHealers.com, Pranic Healing Career Guide
  25. How to Take a Water Crystal Photograph. OFFICE MASARU EMOTO. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
  26. Martin Chaplin, ed. (2007), The Memory of Water Homeopathy 96:141-230
    Copies of the articles in this special issue are freely available on a private website, along with discussion. Homeopathy Journal Club hosted by Bad Science, a blog by Ben Goldacre
  27. Chikramane PS et al. (2010) {http://www.katonics.com/uploads/2010%20-%20%20Paper%201%20-%20Extreme%20homeopathic%20dilutions%20retain%20starting%20%20materials-A%20nanoparticulate%20perspective.pdf]
  28. Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: A nanoparticulate perspective Homeopathy 99:231-42
  29. Not ‘sugar pills’, nano particles found in diluted homeo drugs, Times News Network, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., 3 April 2015. Retrieved on 4 April 2015.
  30. Homeopathic Preparations of Quartz, Sulfur and Copper Sulfate Assessed by UV-Spectroscopy Pub Med 99:231-42
  31. Ives JA et al. (2010) Do serial dilutions really dilute? Homeopathy 99:229-30 PMID 20970091