Materials Science paper - "the Memory of Water", page-6

g. Data from the literature on homeopathy consistent with the newer materials

science models.

This paper has attempted to review the literature on the structure of water through the prism

of materials science, hence focusing on that

literature. Of course large amounts of very

relevant research also exist in the homeopathy literature, and in the following section we

attempt merely to connect the two approaches.

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The central thrust of this paper, which has presented an argument that nullifies the

simpleminded argument of “zero concentration of solute, hence no possible effect,” is that it is

structure

NOT composition which has the effect. When we turn with that lens to the

homeopathy literature one can find much supportive data not only on effectiveness, but on

possible mechanisms, and the relation to structures when liquid homeopathic remedies are

subjected to marked changes in pH or x-rays after extreme cooling [91—93]. Clinicians also

claim that homeopathic remedies are destroyed by exposure to high heat and/or strong

magnetic fields. On the latter topic, a growing number of randomized controlled and

observational clinical studies as well as basic science studies on animals, plants, and cells

suggest that homeopathic remedies can indeed exert biological effects [55, 94—109]. At the

same time skeptics in the field correctly point to inconsistencies and replication failures—

albeit hardly unique to this field—that raise important concerns about the reliability of

phenomena that homeopathic remedies may induce [110—114]. Recent conceptual advances

in the field, e.g., understanding the patients’ and other living organisms’ responses to

remedies as manifestations of nonlinear system dynamics, may lead to new insights into some

of the bases for variations in reproducibility [53, 55].

However, these references are only cited for completeness, and they are not in any way

involved in the data or argument of the present paper, which is limited to the fundamental

chemistry and physics of pure water and the remedies themselves. To take one example, the

recent calorimetric thermodynamic study by Elia and Niccoli demonstrated with high

reproducibility that mixing a base (sodium hydroxide) with a homeopathically prepared agent

diluted beyond Avogadro’s number and shaken vigorously (dose of 12 C, diluted to 10

-24

and

succussed) generated a pH-dependent excess of exothermic heat release in comparison with

diluted control solutions prepared with succussion [91]. They noted a pattern of apparent pH-

dependent disruption of order in the test solutions, analogous to that seen in protein

denaturation. In a very recent paper, the same authors, accurately, make the point that

virtually no “physico-chemical measurements

”, other than their own, have been made on such

diluted and succussed solutions [92]. They then extend their property measurements to

include electrical conductivity and show again the influence of composition, dilution, and

succussion on these properties [92]. These findings are similar to those in a number of other

studies indicating the essential role of succussion, not merely dilution, in preparing active

remedies. In this paper we have shown that a possible key as far as changing the structure of

water is concerned, is the pressure, and nano-bubbles generated in the succussion process. It is

important to emphasize that the proper control solutions include not only untreated,

unsuccussed solvent, but also succussed solvent without the initial addition of any remedy

source materials to address possible artifacts generated by the shaking of the liquid per se

within the test container itself. Obviously chemical contamination from the container material

could itself serve as a “remedy”. This is particularly relevant in the materials science

perspective, since that includes the “poly-water” error of the 1980’s caused by contamination

from the glass containers. If successing is carried out in glass containers the likely possibility

of contamination with small fragments of silicate materials exists. But the influence of these

nano-fragments may really lie in the fact that they could serve as nucleating sites for particular

water clusters.

In the recent homeopathy research literature, various investigators have also proposed

structural models

quite analogous to what we are proposing, involving formation of

aggregates of water molecules or water clusters, possibly seeded by, but not requiring, the

continued presence of, molecules from the original source substance, e.g. zwitterions or

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clathrates [55, 115]. Others have also proposed involvement of a coherent electromagnetic

radiation field within the solvent that contributes order to the molecular motion [ 74, 116].

Del Giudice’s concept of “superradiance” or a “coherence” in an electromagnetic field of

molecular structural elements (extending even into the 100µ range) is similar to some of

our models. Clusters around certain foreign ions at great dilutions have been shown to grow

to the micrometer

range as shown in SEM photos with dilution [47]. These authors

concluded: “It appears that there is an equilibrium in the solution between clusters and

aggregates of clusters, which is dynamic and dependent on various factors such as

concentration, solution history, time, temperature, etc.” To which if one adds epitaxy,

nanobubble, and pressure effects, we have an exact statement of our own position. This

complex heterogeneity makes the equilibrium distribution more susceptible to change by

magnetic or electric fields and by the total homeopathic preparation process, including

succussion.

Other new data by Rey demonstrating that successfully diluted water solutions are indeed

different from standards, comes from his recent work on the thermoluminescence of

extremely diluted samples after X-ray irradiation of alkali halides [93]. This data again

supports the case that extreme dilution + epitaxy + succussing, can plausibly result in a water

with different structures, possibly containing a permanent nanobubble colloid, and it can have

measurably different physical properties, a very plausible

result from the viewpoint of

materials science, and consistent with the extensive data from the homeopathy research.