The Homeopathic Hit Squad

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http://www.anomalist.com/gonzoscience/homeopathic.html Gonzo ScienceThe Homeopathic Hit SquadA Column by Jim Richardson and Allen RichardsonWhen homeopathy was scientifically confirmed, the offending scientistsreceived a visit from the homeopathic hit squad. Their mission: to rub outthe career of the chief scientist-heretic, French immunologist Dr. JacquesBenveniste. What is the homeopathic heresy, and how did top science journalNature attempt to eliminate the Benveniste threat?Most homeopathic remedies involve curing illness with extremely low doses ofhomeopathic medicine. Homeopathic cures are often diluted in water to thepoint where not a single molecule of the original substance actuallyremains. All you have left is water, which yet shows a curative effect. Thisis known as the "infinite dilution" claim.This notion, if true, could smash the mechanistic laws of chemistry,biochemistry, and pharmacology, wherein something must be present in orderto react with something else. But could water have a kind of "memory"?In 1985, Benveniste and his team experimented with ways to block allergicreactions. Allergic reactions are caused in part by substances likehistamine, which are stored in granules inside white blood cells. You candegranulate the granules, and stop the allergic reaction, by using asubstance known as algE. What Benveniste dared to try was to infinitelydilute the algE, and then to test its degranulating effects. As predicted bythe homeopaths, it worked. Subsequently, six other labs in France, Italy,Israel, and Canada replicated Benveniste's results.Then Nature got involved. They published Benveniste's results in 1988,kindly thrusting him into the spotlight, and proceeded to make an example ofhim. The indications are that Nature, the foremost scientific journal in theworld, published the Benveniste findings solely to publicly knock them down,and not to inform the scientific world of important new results. Forinstance: Nature suspected Benveniste of committing fraud, yet published hiswork anyway. Also, they could have held up publication for four weeks untilthey had finished the "investigation" they sicced on his lab. And theypublished his work even though the negative results of their "investigation"were a foregone conclusion. The message was clear: don't color outside thelines, or we'll make with the mad smack-down. Nature had sent out a hitsquad.The squad consisted of Nature editor and physicist J. Maddox; organicchemist W. Stewart; and none other than professional magician James "theAmazing" Randi, whose specialty is uncovering fraud. Benveniste was left topoint out that of the two actual scientists on the squad, neither was animmunologist. Also according to Benveniste, the squad waltzed into his laband were rude and disruptive as they rooted about for fraud like hogsdigging for truffles. Then they went back to their journal and published areport that said in essence, "We didn't find anything wrong, but we arecertain that Benveniste is incorrect (and by extension, so are all the labswho verified his work)."Since the hit squad incident, various studies have tossed the issue back andforth like a ping-pong ball, with the studies that prove Benveniste wronggetting published in Nature, and the other studies dry up and blow away. Andmany scientists don't even want to touch the issue and risk getting a hitsquad of their own. Benveniste answers his critics in the letters column ofNature, which is the only print he sees these days since the hit squadincident resulted in his loss of funding, equipment, lab space, and standingin the scientific community.A pan-European effort, involving double-blind trials in four labs acrossEurope, recently convened to put down the struggling heresy for good like amad dog. The results, reported March 15th, 2001, in the British paperGuardian Unlimited, contained bad news for the skeptics. The pan-Europeaneffort totally vindicated Benveniste and the "infinite dilution" claim ofthe homeopaths. Three of the four labs found statistically significantresults from their infinite dilutions, as compared to placebos, and lab #4came close.The findings have split the sceptical community like a log. One pan-Europeanscientist, Professor Madeliene Ennis, a former sceptic, has converted. Shepoints to the airtight methodology of the pan-European tests and says it'stime to "start searching for a rational explanation for our findings."A possible explanation for the memory of water includes the theory of"morphic resonance," which allows a "ghost" molecule to imprint itself inthe vibratory structure of the water. If that theory pans out, we are seeinga seismic tremor in the history of science, involving nothing less than thebreakdown of mechanism, and the rise of energy fields as the major players.Alternatively, some recent research has suggested that homeopathically"diluted' substance" might actually be more concentrated instead, in aperfectly mechanistic way that heretofore had gone unknown. If this is true,it arguably leaves even more egg on the faces of Nature's homeopathic hitsquad, and their infinitely diluted imaginations.Recommended Reading: The Memory of Water: Homoeopathy and the Battle ofIdeas in the New Science by Michel Schiff; see also Jacques Benveniste'swebsite: DigiBio Research Laboratory..--Copyright 2001 by Jim Richardson and Allen Richardson