About sructured Water

Structured water - a term often used in the text of alternative medicine and esotericism used to refer to some "water modified with respect to the equilibrium structure of the environment." Often, structured water is offered as a "sverhlekarstva" supposedly capable to treat the disease recognized as incurable medicine.

Scientifically proved effect ordering only the existence of the water molecules during adsorption of water molecules on surfaces having a specific alternating positively and negatively charged groups of atoms, as well as the dissolution of certain polymers, in particular protein macromolecules that is used to describe some of the properties of the fluid cell. This ordering is neither complete the entire volume of liquid or stable over time. Such a structure is destroyed within a short time due to their own thermal motion of water molecules and completely destroyed by the introduction of disturbances in the structured environment (eg - stirring). Full ordering water in a stable structure (the appearance of long-range order) happens when it freezes. This structure is almost completely destroyed during defrosting.

Also, there is evidence that at thawing frozen water in the liquid phase stored small groups of molecules with a "neighbor procedure", reminiscent of the order of the molecules of the ice. This is confirmed by X-ray analysis. But when heated to 30 ° C (for example, if it drinking) water is completely amorphous.

Memory of Water

With the idea of ​​structured water is closely related to the assumption of the "memory of water". This is the basic idea for the theoretical foundations of homeopathy, according to which the water is supposedly at the molecular level has a "memory" of the substance, once a dissolved therein, and retains the properties of the solution initial concentration after there does not remain any molecule ingredient. The results of some experiments supposedly do indicate such a possibility, but again conducting an experiment did not bring evidence of the reality of the phenomenon. The scientific community does not accept the concept of the memory of water. In particular, the experiments were conducted in ITEB Russian Academy of Sciences, showed that "the water does not remember the last presence in it of [previously] include the substances, as she does not remember the past and external physical influences on it." The prize of one million dollars, announced for the audited experience demonstrates the memory of water, no one received.

Jacques Benveniste's experiments

Scientific debate over the concept of "memory of water" broke out in the early 80-ies of the XX century, after the scandalous publication in the journal Nature article by the famous French immunologist Jacques Benveniste (Jacques Benveniste: born March 12, 1935, died on 3 October 2004), at the time headed the so-called "200-th Division" at the Paris institute INSERM. Article preceded by many years of discussion between - on the one hand, the followers and practitioners of homeopathy, on the other - representatives of academic science. Homeopathists claimed that the water retains novopriobretёnnye properties even after the drug substance or diluted therein to substantially "zero" concentrations; in other words - it has some kind of "memory". Opponents believed that such a statement violates all current scientific understanding of the laws of chemistry.

In 1983, Jacques Benveniste, who later became a twice winner of the Ig Nobel Prize, received by Bernard homeopath trays invitation to take part in the study of biochemical solutions of low concentrations. Benveniste familiar with homeopathic theories and treat them with skepticism, in turn, invited a group of colleagues to carry out a series of scientific experiments on the effects on the human body antibodies consistently reducing their concentration in a given volume of water. According to all known laws of chemistry, reaction to the drug would have to decline with a decrease in the concentration and on reaching the final zero cease altogether. Benveniste and his team, however, registered a very different picture: to the extent that the concentration of antibodies in solution dropped, the force of action of the drug is decreased, then increased again, and most importantly, in the end not gone to zero, as the researchers expected.

Articles about the study, the researchers sent for publication in the journal Nature. The editorial staff expressed concern that the publication of this material will homeopath practitioners an opportunity to assert the scientific evidence the foundations of homeopathy, even if the author would subsequently disproved. In favor of the fallacy of the study also says that it requires too much change in the known physical and chemical laws.

The editor of Nature, John Maddox said: "Our mind is not so much closed as not ready to change the idea of ​​how to construct modern science." However, the magazine had no reason to reject the article, since at that time it was found methodological errors.

Eventually a compromise was reached. The article was published in the number 333 Nature. It was preceded by a note Maddox, in which he warned readers from making premature judgments and gives several examples of violation of the known laws of physics and chemistry, which are inevitable if the allegations are true Benveniste. Maddox also invited to reproduce the experiment under the supervision of the group, which included most of Maddox, Randy James (founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation) and Walter Stuart (physicist and freelance NIH).

The group came to the laboratory Benveniste and repeated the experiment. In the first series of experiments were carried out exactly as described in the article Benveniste. The data matched very closely with the published article. However, Maddox noted that in the course of the study the experimenters were aware in what flasks is an antigen, and in which not. In the second series of experiments to observe the conditions demanded Maddox "double blind" method of investigation. Indoor surveillance was carried out, the inscriptions on the vials were encrypted. While all (including Maddox's group) were confident that the result again, the effect is immediately gone.

The report was published in an upcoming issue of Nature. In the final part it said: "There is no reason to believe that antiIgE high dilution retain their biological activity. The hypothesis, that water has a memory of past solutions, is as useless as far-fetched. " Initially Maddox suggested that someone in the lab fun of Benveniste, however, he later said: "We are confident that the laboratory promoted and nurtured misconceptions in Benveniste's interpretation of the data." Maddox also pointed out that the work of two employees of the scientist paid homeopathic company Boiron.

In the same issue of the magazine was published Benveniste's response, in which he blamed the group Maddox bias. He also pointed out that the homeopathic company pays for the work of its employees, also paid the bill for the hotel group Maddox.

In response to (in the television show «Quirks and Quarks») Maddox denied the charges and insisted that the possibility of using the results of the community demanded an immediate cross-checking homeopaths experiments. The failure in the "double-blind" testing clearly shows the influence of "experimenter effect" on the original result. Maddox also noticed that all the verification procedure has been fully agreed upon by both parties. It was only after the failure of Benveniste began to refute it.

In 1997 he founded his own company Benveniste Digibio, which took up even more exotic experience (in particular, argued about the possibility of transmission of biological information over the phone or even via the Internet).

Confirmations and denials

Among those who supported Benveniste was 1973 Nobel Laureate physicist Brian Josephson. In 1999, Time magazine reported that Benveniste and Josephson, on the one hand, and the American Physical Society (APS), on the other, have agreed to the experiment blindly under the James Randi Educational Foundation (for proof of the existence of the effect of "water memory" I relied $ 1 million). However, the experiments were conducted.

In 2000, the independent test was conducted for the possibility of the transmission properties of the "structured" water at a distance: it financed the US Department of Defense. Using the same equipment as the team Benveniste, a group of American scientists could not detect the slightest trace of the effect described in the original report. It was observed that the positive effect is achieved only if the experiment involved at least one person from the laboratory Benveniste. The French scientist, recognizing the existence of such laws, said that water reacts to the presence of a "sympathetic" to her people, which in itself proves the existence of her "memory".

In 2002, an international team of scientists led by Professor Madeleine Ennis of Queen's University in Belfast, said that she was able to prove the reality of the effect described by Benveniste. Randy immediately offered the same 1 million program of BBC Horizon, which has undertaken to carry out a visual demonstration of the experiment. However, in the course of experiments conducted under the supervision of the Vice-President of the Royal Society Professor John Enderby, Ennis statements have not been confirmed.

The magazine Focus (№ 168) in the "Secrets" published an article on homeopathy. In it, among others, are also such opinion:

It is clear that the water simply can not "store" information in itself. This completely contradicts everything we know about the structural dynamics of the liquid. The structure of the water, meanwhile, is changing much faster than the structure of other liquids. - Dr. Jared Smith, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Kaliforniya.Eto primitive and false argument. The fact that the hydrogen bonds are created and destroyed almost instantly, no doubt, but it does not mean that they are not able to change the structure carry the information. You can draw an analogy with folk dance: each participant is constantly changing partners, but the dance remains unchanged. - Professor Martin Chaplin, University of London in 2002 Sautbenk.V Louis Rey performed thermoluminescent analysis of solutions of low concentrations. Some of these solutions did not contain any molecules dissolved in the first of these substances. Meanwhile, their thermoluminescent "fingerprint" remains the same as it would be if material was still dissolved in the water.

The assumption of the existence of the "memory of water" has generated a lot of speculation. In 1999 he published a book in Japanese Masaru Emoto "Messages of water» («Messages from Water»), which asserted that the water in a certain way completely changes its structure under the influence of various human emotions. The author cited as evidence photographs of ice crystals that look "beautiful" (if the water exposed to positive stimuli in advance - nice music, thoughts, emotions) or "ugly" (if the stimulus was negative). Masaru organized trade so-called "structured water". Dr. Dean Radin (Institite of Noetic Sciences, California) volunteered to repeat the experiments Emoto: he photographed ice crystals (from the water, which until then prayed 2000 the Japanese), put them next to the pictures of ordinary crystals and suggested an independent jury of 100 people blindly to assess " aesthetic state "crystals. It turned out that the aesthetic evaluation of "sanctified" crystals are much higher than the estimate of ice crystals from ordinary water. Both "researcher" does not provide information about how the water crystals were selected to display the test.

Physics

In 1967, Soviet scientists N. and B. Derjaguin Fedyakin investigated under laboratory conditions associated forms of water, getting them in thin quartz capillaries. This data is subsequently not confirmed in further experiments of their own.

The theory of cluster structure of water theory has been disproved at the beginning of the 80s the use of percolation theory and experimentally, by measuring the lifetime of intermolecular hydrogen bonds (the order of picoseconds). Other methods, however, indicate the possibility of the existence of short-range order - by Raman spectroscopy Seikan shows the possible positions of the water molecules in clusters of about 100 molecules. Other authors have reported clusters of up to 3 nm.

Chemistry

The presence of water in the structure can affect the rate of chemical reactions. Many chemical reactions are slower ice than with liquid water, because of the lower temperature of ice compared with liquid water. Similar chemical reactions with steam, respectively, will flow faster than liquid water. Influence of structures in liquid water is extremely small and the experiments had not taken into account.

Medicine and Biology

Modern medicine and biology has no scientific evidence to the claims of those who ascribe structured amazing healing properties of water. Nevertheless, Nobel laureate virologist Luc Montagnier in an interview with the journal Nature in December 2010 spoke in defense of Benveniste as a scientist who "had been rejected by all, because it looked far ahead," but "I think basically correct."

The use of "water memory"

Currently, scientific information on the use of "water memory" is not.

References to the "memory of water" in the application of aqueous solutions for the treatment of diseases currently do not have a scientific basis.

(According to the Wikipedia®)

The first article was published on our website Osmosis Kharkiv 04.25.2015