Waves caused by extreme dilution

Maddox, John

doi:10.1038/335760a0

Cited by 178 publications

(37 citation statements)

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“…Nevertheless, the fact that the outcomes were different for ''inactive'' and ''active'' samples in blind experiments remained puzzling and was the strong point of the article. Details on the investigation by Nature's team and the subsequent controversy, which are not the subject of this article, can be found elsewhere (Benveniste 2005;de Pracontal 1990;Schiff 1998;Maddox 1988;Maddox et al 1988;Beauvais 2007Beauvais , 2012. During the following years, new data with the basophil model were published by other teams or by Benveniste's team itself with various conclusions Ovelgonne et al 1992;Hirst et al 1993;Belon et al 1999;Brown and Ennis 2001;Ennis 2010).…”

Section: Abstract Personalist Probability Theory á Quantum Bayesianismentioning

confidence: 87%

“Memory of Water” Without Water: Modeling of Benveniste’s Experiments with a Personalist Interpretation of Probability

Beauvais¹

2015

Axiomathes

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Benveniste's experiments were at the origin of a scientific controversy that has never been satisfactorily resolved. Hypotheses based on modifications of water structure that were proposed to explain these experiments (''memory of water'') were generally considered as quite improbable. In the present paper, we show that Benveniste's experiments violated the law of total probability, one of the pillars of classical probability theory. Although this could suggest that quantum logic was at work, the decoherence process is however at first sight an obstacle to describe this macroscopic experimental situation. Based on the principles of a personalist view of probability (quantum Bayesianism or QBism), a modeling could nevertheless be built that fitted the outcomes reported in Benveniste's experiments. Indeed, in QBism, there is no split between microscopic and macroscopic, but between the world where an agent lives and his internal experience of that world.

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Section: Abstract Personalist Probability Theory á Quantum Bayesianismentioning

confidence: 87%

“Memory of Water” Without Water: Modeling of Benveniste’s Experiments with a Personalist Interpretation of Probability

Beauvais¹

2015

Axiomathes

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“…Therefore, the report of Nature's investigation in Benveniste's laboratory has been generally considered to put the last word to the public debate. 6,7 Nevertheless, some authors reported modifications of physical parameters of highly-diluted solutions or proposed different theoretical frameworks. [8][9][10][11][12][13] How the specificity of the initial molecule could be conveyed through the successive dilutions remained however unanswered in these various theoretical frameworks.…”

Section: /20mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Memory of Water” Experiments Explained with No Role Assigned to Water: Pattern Expectation after Classical Conditioning of the Experimenter

Beauvais¹

2020

Preprint

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The “memory of water” experiments suggested the existence of molecular-like effects without molecules. Although no convincing evidence of modifications of water – specific of biologically-active molecules – has been reported up to now, consistent changes of biological systems were nevertheless recorded. We propose an alternate explanation based on classical conditioning of the experimenter. Using a probabilistic model, we describe not only the biological system, but also the experimenter engaged in an elementary dose-response experiment. We assume that during conventional experiments involving genuine biologically-active molecules, the experimenter is involuntarily conditioned to expect a pattern, namely a relationship between descriptions (or “labels”) of experimental conditions and corresponding biological system states. The model predicts that the conditioned experimenter could continue to record the learned pattern even in the absence of the initial cause, namely the biologically-active molecules. The phenomenon is self-sustained because the observation of the expected pattern reinforces the initial conditioning. A necessary requirement is the use of a system submitted to random fluctuations with autocorrelated successive states (no forced return to the initial position). The relationship recorded by the conditioned experimenter is, however, not causal in this model because blind experiments with an “outside” supervisor lead to a loss of correlations (i.e., system states randomly associated to “labels”). In conclusion, this psychophysical model allows explaining the results of “memory of water” experiments without referring to water or another local cause. It could be extended to other scientific fields in biology, medicine and psychology when suspecting an experimenter effect.

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“…The journal continued to be flooded with letters to the editors, as it had been after the original publication; these were mostly negative and critical of Benveniste's claims, and tried to explain his experimental results as artifacts generated by his sloppy procedures (Kaufmann 1993, p. 76). Finally, the journal put an end to these discussion by announcing on October 27 that it would no longer publish anything on the topic (Maddox 1988a, Benveniste 1988b. Although that was the end of Nature's involvement in the affair, the controversy continued for several more years, mostly in France but to some extent internationally; this happened in general popular media, in media of scientific popularization, and to some extent in other technical scientific publications.…”

Section: The Benveniste Affairmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, this affair involves some very technical content and factual points in biology, immunology, and medical science, which need to be highlighted, although for our purpose here they need not be mastered or completely understood. Doury presupposes these facts, but I found that I had to retrieve them, partly from her own secondary sources (Alfonsi 1989, Kaufmann 1993, Pracontal 1990, and partly from the original primary sources (Benveniste 1988a, Benveniste 1988b, Davenas et al 1988, Maddox 1988a, Maddox 1988b, Maddox et al 1988). …”

Section: The Benveniste Affairmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Argument Form "Appeal to Galileo": A Critical Appreciation of Doury’s Account

Finocchiaro

2015

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Following a linguisticdescriptivist approach, Marianne Doury has studied debates about "parasciences" (e.g. astrology), discovering that "parascientists" frequently argue by "appeal to Galileo" (i.e., defend their views by comparing themselves to Galileo and their opponents to the Inquisition); opponents object by criticizing the analogy, charging fallacy, and appealing to counter-examples. I argue that Galilean appeals are much more widely used, by creationists, globalwarming skeptics, advocates of "settled science", great scientists, and great philosophers. Moreover, several subtypes should be distinguished; critiques questioning the analogy are proper; fallacy charges are problematic; and appeals to counterexamples are really indirect critiques of the analogy. Résumé:En poursuivant une approche linguistique-descriptiviste, Marianne Doury a étudié les débats sur les «parasciences » (par exemple, l'astrologie), et a découvert que les «parasavants» raisonnent souvent en faisant un «appel à Galilée" (c.-à-d. ils défendent leurs points de vue en se comparant à Galileo et en comparant leurs adversaires aux juges de l'Inquisition). Les adversaires des parasavant critiquent l'analogie en la qualifiant de sophisme, et en construisant des contreexemples. Je soutiens que les appels à Galilée sont beaucoup plus largement utilisés, par des créationnistes, des sceptiques du réchauffement planétaire, des défenseurs de la «science établie», des grands scientifiques, et des grands philosophes. En outre, on doit distinguer plusieurs sous-types; les critiques de l'analogie sont appropriées; les accusations de sophisme sont problématiques; et les contre-exemples sont vraiment des critiques indirectes de l'analogie.

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Waves caused by extreme dilution

Cited by 178 publications

References 0 publications

“Memory of Water” Without Water: Modeling of Benveniste’s Experiments with a Personalist Interpretation of Probability

“Memory of Water” Without Water: Modeling of Benveniste’s Experiments with a Personalist Interpretation of Probability

“Memory of Water” Experiments Explained with No Role Assigned to Water: Pattern Expectation after Classical Conditioning of the Experimenter

The Argument Form "Appeal to Galileo": A Critical Appreciation of Doury’s Account

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