Water memory

Water memory is a theory, basic to homeopathy, which holds that water is capable of containing "memory" of particles dissolved in it. Some proponents of this theory believe that this information may be retrieved, and even transmitted via telephone or the Internet. This memory allows water to retain the properties of the original solute even when there is literally no solute left in the solution.

The theory is dismissed by mainstream science.

The most prominent research in this field was performed by the late French immunologist Jacques Benveniste, who attempted to construct a mechanistic explanation for homeopathy. Many of his results have not been successfully replicated in other laboratories.

A distantly related series of "polywater" experiments performed by Soviet scientist Boris Derjaguin led to a much research interest before it was determined that the findings resulted from poorly controlled experiments and theories.

Skeptic James Randi placed a $1Million challenge to the BBC Horizon team to prove the "water memory " theory. Experiments were conducted in a proper scientific manner involving statistics and the most sophisticated instrumentation available. The Vice-President of the Royal Society, Professor John Enderby oversaw the experiment. The challange finally ended in the Horizon team failing to prove the memory of water by scientific experimentation and hence saving James Randi of his one million dollars and his faith in science.

According to many experts the claims of healing by homeopathy are related to the Placebo effect.

See also

• Bad science
• Pathological science
• Pseudoscience
• Protoscience
• Junk science
• Scientific misconduct

External link

• DigiBio

Reference

"Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link," J. Benveniste, P. Jurgens, W. Hsueh and J. Aissa, "Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - Program and abstracts of papers to be presented during scientific sessions AAAAI/AAI.CIS Joint Meeting February 21-26, 1997"