Jacques Benveniste, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Jacques Benveniste is a scientist who has done a considerable amount of work in medical research field. He was born in 1935, he was very intelligent and after studying medicine, he became head of the clinic at the medical faculty. He worked with cancer patients for some time then he wanted to do the research. He was committed to biological research, like the cells communication specifically the cells that build the human immune system. He worked in France and U.S. and wrote more about 300 articles related to science.

He always tackled problems that matter to him, not that were fashionable. In the mid eighties, he started taking interest in hormesis and in the high dilutions mysteries. This was the first step regarding his water memory saga. He died in 2004 and with him a chunk of scientific creativity went away. “The doctor Jacques, an immunologist well known for the discovery of platelet activating factor (PAF), and, at the end of the 1980’s , for the theory of the “memory of water”, died the third of October in Paris” (Poitevin, 2005).

Work and Noble Prizes

In chemistry, Benveniste received two Ig Nobel prizes. He got the first prize in 1991 for his believing that water is very intelligent liquid and can never forget events after long time even when the traces has disappeared. “The second in 1998 cites ‘his homeopathic discovery that not n only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet” (Maartens, 2006, pp. 244).

Dr. Jacques Benveniste (1946-2005) had a specific interest in immunology. Working at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), he researched the effect of extremely weak solutions of antigens (compounds that elicit antibody reactions) on basophils. Basophils are particular cells in the bloodstream that include tiny granules of histamine, the compound released in classic allergic reactions, such as hay fever. The antidote is to take antihistamines (Rowe, 2007).

When antigens bind to particular receptors on the surface of basophils, they provide a reaction that causes the basophils to degranulate and release histamine. According to classical Newtonian theory, gradually larger amounts of antigen must produce gradually stronger cellular responses, and more dilute solutions of antigen should really produce weaker cellular reactions. Ahead of a specific dilution there should be no result at all, simply because there would, statistically, be not even one molecule of antigen in the test sample.

“Benveniste had observed that highly dilute (and even in the absence of physical molecules) biological agents still triggered relevant biological systems” (Widom, et. al, 2010). In homeopathy, usual practice is to shake a treatment powerfully across water, then dilute with nine parts pure water. Ten such dilutions are called a decimal. After twelve decimals there are no molecules left of the original compound. Regardless, the remedy still has biological activity, and increased dilution can make the remedy even more dynamic. How is this possible?

Benveniste knew that this research outcome were so debatable that his only chance of publication was to have other scientists copy his work. After his experiment was replicated in several laboratories around the world, Benveniste’s conclusions were finally published by the influential magazine Nature. The article was followed by an editorial that questioned whether this research was to be believed, because it contradicted current scientific theory.

Because the article in Nature appeared to change the principle of homeopathy, a healing practice assumed counterfeit by most of its readership, it established a worldwide storm of a hot debate between old world Newtonian thinkers and new world Einsteinian theorists and clinicians (Benveniste, 2004). Around four days Nature’s editor, John Maddox, descended on Benveniste’s lab in Paris followed by both a physicist specialize in scientific fraud and a professional magician known for his work in “debunking psychics and paranormal phenomena”. They stayed for five days and criticize successful experiments that they observed as fraud. Maddox himself tried to restate the experiment with no protocols. Shortly after that, Maddox publicized a frightening report in Nature: “high dilution experiments a delusion”.

What the debunking team failed to understand was that these experiments measured slight energy effects. There is no consideration given to the potential that the researchers’ attitudes affected the outcome of the experiments.

“Current studies in our laboratory on the biological effects of highly diluted ligands could have widespread consequences for biology, beyond the “memory of water.” They may reveal unknown aspects of molecular interaction and recognition via specifi” (Benveniste, 1993).

Benveniste described examinations that cannot be explained by current theories. In his final years, he investigated the opportunity of recording electromagnetic signals in biological water. Life depends on these signals between molecules. He digitally recorded the waveforms of some thirty substances (for instance, bacteria, antibodies, and so on) on a computer hard drive. These electromagnetic reproductions produced the same reactions as the original substances.

“The Benventiste Affair” is notable because it shows the quality to which the scientific establishment will go to disrepute anyone who challenges appreciated theories, even going against well established ideals of openmindedness. The fallback position is: “We can’t explain it, so it can’t be true” (Rothhut, 2004).

Mainly prior to the consultation of the Nature fraud squad, Dr. Atrias, a homeopathic doctor, had convinced Benveniste to think about an electrical machine that he claimed that transferred chemical reports. Benveniste had long believed that the electromagnetic properties of the cell played a part in saving information in the water before the molecule disappeared, making it able to be retrieve at a later time.

When it completely appeared that Benveniste’s team was able to effectively describe that a chemical signal could be transported without its original molecular assistance, it now looked as though an electromagnetic image of the original molecule could be held. He also highlighted that without the medium of water, signals cannot be transported in the body.

Homeopathy works on the comprehensibility of the whole organism, so you would expect it to respond to quantum, rather than material, principles. One of the issues with testing homeopathic reactions is to discover methods adequate to the individual person. Regular diagnosis techniques apply to examining individual molecules, rather than the collective global properties of a patient.

Work Cited

“Jacques Benveniste.” Lancet 06 Nov. 2004: 1660. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 May 2012.

Poitevin, Bernard. “In Memory of Jacques Benveniste.” American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine 2005: 7+. Alt HealthWatch. Web. 21 May 2012.

Rowe, Mark. “20-Year Dispute On Homeopathy.” Nursing Standard 22.1 (2007): 25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 May 2012.Rothhut, Bernard. “Benveniste’s Reputation Was Not Written In Water.” Nature 432.7016 (2004): 439. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 8 May 2012.

Maartens, W., (2006), Mapping Reality: A critical perspective on science and religion. Retrieved from Google ebooks from http://books.google.com/books id=iOFzumInA2kC&lpg=PA244&dq=How%20a%20follow%20up%20research%20of%20Benveniste%E2%80%99s%20laboratory%20by%20a%20team%20including%20Nature%20editor.%20Dr.%20John%20Maddox%20and%20professional%20pseudoscience%20debunker%E2%80%99%20James%20Randi%2C%20with%20the%20cooperation%20of%20Benveniste%E2%80%99s%20own%20team&pg=PA244#v=onepage&q=How%20a%20follow%20up%20research%20of%20Benveniste%E2%80%99s%20laboratory%20by%20a%20team%20including%20Nature%20editor.%20Dr.%20John%20Maddox%20and%20professional%20pseudo-science%20debunker%E2%80%99%20James%20Randi,%20with%20the%20cooperation%20of%20Benveniste%E2%80%99s%20own%20team&f=false

Widom, Allan, Yogendra Srivastava, and Vincenzo Valenzi. “The Biophysical Basis Of

Benveniste Experiments: Entropy, Structure, And Information In Water.” International Journal Of Quantum Chemistry 110.1 (2010): 252-256. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 May 2012.

Benveniste, Jacques. “Transfer Of Biological Activity By Electromagnetic Fields.” Frontier

Perspectives 3.2 (1993): 13. Alt HealthWatch. Web. 21 May 2012.