Ask A Scientist© General Science Archive

   
name         lisa
status       other
age          30s

Question -   I am interested in learning more about the living memory
of water.  There was a French scientist who had been working on a theorum
that pstulated that water is alive, and has memory.  Apparently,
the  memory is contained within the vibratory frequencies of water in its
natural state.  I have read about water's composition being ltered within
pipes, because the water is forced to move in a position that is not
retained within it smemory.  Hence, the idea that we are not consuming
natural water, and that the water that we do drink is an alteration of
the natural water that is found in nature.  Have you ever heard of
this?  Can you identify the scientist?  Is this scientific theory as to
the retained memory of water, a fact?

You gotta wonder why he/she singled out water, which behaves very
much like other liquids.  I mean, what distinguishes water from, say, dry
cleaning fluid, that would make someone think water is alive and
dry cleaning fluid is not?  Water behaves in an utterly mindless fashion
and, in my view, displays no sign of memory or of life.

No, I have not hear of this before, and I can't identify the person who
proposed it.  This is not a scientific theory, and it is not a fact.

However, it's wonderful fiction.  There is a great science-fiction book
entitled Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem, in which one of the main characters
is a sentient ocean.  You might like it.

Tim Mooney
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Well, at ordinary temperatures, water molecules are in their ground
vibrational states.  Hence, their vibrations contain no "information" or
"memory," in the sense that the vibration of a molecule of water won't tell
you anything about what has happened to it in the past.  Nothing in our
current understanding of the bonding, behavior, chemistry, or physics of
water indicates that it reatins any sort of memory or life.

I have no idea who this French scientist might be.  Frankly, he sounds more
like a mystic, or a salesman (trying to sell natural water systems?) than
like a scientist.  IMHO, the theory is hogwash.


                Richard E. Barrans Jr.
                CHM/200/M019
                Argonne National Laboratory
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November, 2000 Up-date

The french scientist that this article refers to is Dr. Jacques Benveniste and 
his homepage is http://www.digibio.com.  A summary of his experiment may be 
found at http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/digibio.html.

This service makes no claim as to the legitimacy of this research.

Thanks to Brian.
=========================================================
February 2004 Up-date

Holding such a heretical view famously cost one of France's top allergy
researchers, Jacques Benveniste, his funding, labs and reputation after
his findings were discredited in 1988.

Thanks to
Andrej S.
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