Now for something about a real scientist! Virologist, and Nobel Science winner (2008), Luc Montagnier says that DNA molecules can 'teleport'; and the question is, is this how science is eventually going to explain how homeopathy works?
Let's be clear. Homeopathy is an effective and safe medical therapy. It does not need an explanation for why it works so well for over 200 years. But science does need to be able to explain it. After all, this is what science, real science, is all about - explaining what is happening in the world to us!
And homeopaths, so much under attack from so-called 'scientists' or homeopathy denialists, would certainly like to know why, what we do, works!
So this is how his work has been described:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/216767/dna_molecules_can_teleport_nobel_winner_says.html
Let's be clear. Homeopathy is an effective and safe medical therapy. It does not need an explanation for why it works so well for over 200 years. But science does need to be able to explain it. After all, this is what science, real science, is all about - explaining what is happening in the world to us!
And homeopaths, so much under attack from so-called 'scientists' or homeopathy denialists, would certainly like to know why, what we do, works!
So this is how his work has been described:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/216767/dna_molecules_can_teleport_nobel_winner_says.html
"According to a team headed by Luc Montagnier, previously known for his work on HIV and AIDS, two test tubes, one of which contained a tiny piece of bacterial DNA, the other pure water, were surrounded by a weak electromagnetic field of 7Hz.
Eighteen hours later, after DNA amplification using a polymerase chain reaction, as if by magic the DNA was detectable in the test tube containing pure water.
Oddly, the original DNA sample had to be diluted many times over for the experiment to work, which might explain why the phenomenon has not been detected before, assuming that this is what has happened.
The phenomenon might be very loosely described as 'teleportation' except that the bases project or imprint themselves across space rather than simply moving from one place to another.
To be on the safe side, Montagnier then compared the results with controls in which the time limit was lowered, no electromagnetic field was present or was present but at lower frequencies, and in which both tubes contained pure water. On every one of these, he drew a blank.
The quantum effect - the imprinting of the DNA on the water - is not in itself the most contentious element of the experiment, so much as the relatively long timescales over which it appears to manifest itself. Quantum phenomena are assumed to show their faces in imperceptible fractions of a second and not seconds minutes and hours, and usually at very low temperatures approaching absolute zero.
Revealing a process through which biology might display the underlying 'quantumness' of nature at room temperature would be startling.
His work is clearly at its early stages. He recognises that what he has discovered will have to be replicated. But he is optimistic, and he says he knows that his work might be an explanation for homeopathy. This is what he said in a recent interview.
"I was skeptical myself in the beginning. But these are facts. The findings are reproducible and we are waiting for confirmation from other labs".
Asked if he thought there was 'something in' homeopathy, he said this:
"I can't say that homeopathy is right in everything. What I can say is that the high dilutions are right. High dilutions are something, not nothing. They are water structures which mimic the original molecules. We find that with DNA we cannot work in the high dilutions used in homeopathy..... but even at 10:18 you can calculate that there is not a single molecule of DNA left. And yet we detect a signal.
I understand that 'homeopathy denialists' are planning to start a campaign soon which says 'there is nothing in homeopathy'. Now we know that a Noble Prize winning scientist disagrees with them!