Alive and inanimate

Five myths about the unusual properties of ordinary water

Taras Molotilin, N+1

We don't know exactly where the myths about water come from. There is a lot of speculation on this topic, affecting both the biological role of water and its cultural significance, and even the fact that from the point of view of physics and chemistry, water really is a very unusual liquid. But since "very unusual" does not mean "magical and mysterious", we decided to separate the wheat from the chaff and recall the most popular beliefs about the properties of water. And at the same time to figure out what's wrong with them. We have prepared this material together with the company "Aquafor".

1. Water memory

"Take physics and throw it in the trash: water has a memory! And although her memory of a tiny drop of onion juice seems endless,
for some reason, she forgets about all the shit that floated in her..."
Tim Minchin, "The Storm."

What is being claimed?

Water has the ability to remember which substances were dissolved in it. And not only to remember, but also to reproduce the properties of solutions, despite the fact that there is not a single molecule of the desired substance in the solution. This effect is achieved due to the fact that water molecules are supposedly arranged in a certain way around the molecules of the dissolved substance and subsequently retain this structure.

Where did this come from?

The popular term "water memory" appeared thanks to the work of the French immunologist Jacques Benveniste in the late 1980s - early 1990s. In a series of experiments on the activation of basophils (varieties of leukocytes that play an important role in allergic reactions of the body), the team led by Benveniste showed that with a consistent decrease in the concentration of antibodies activating basophils, a response of the latter was observed even when statistically no antibodies could remain in the sample. To the credit of the researchers, it should be noted that they did not offer any revolutionary theoretical explanation for the new results, and there were no critical errors in the description of the methodological part of their work. Nevertheless, the results they obtained contradicted the existing ideas about the physicochemical properties of water at that time. For this reason, the editor of the journal Nature, to which Benveniste and colleagues sent an article based on the results of the work, agreed to accept the publication on the condition that the researchers conduct a repeat experiment under the supervision of a special commission.

The article was published in Nature in June 1988. Soon after, the scientists tried to reproduce their results under the supervision of a commission (which even included a professional illusionist). At first they succeeded, but when they tried to do the same in a blind test (when the experimenter did not know which tube contained the active substance, and which one contained an empty sample or a standard for comparison), everything changed: the water refused to remember anything. It is still unknown what caused the initial success of Benveniste. Either he deliberately wanted to deceive the scientific community, or he sincerely believed in his incredible results, but the scientist did not admit his own mistake, finished his academic career and continued experiments in an independent laboratory.

How is it really going?

The notion of "water memory" contradicts modern concepts of physical chemistry. Despite the fact that water does have a structure, this structure is constantly changing, whereas the concept of "memory" implies the presence of a certain state for a long time. At least, until the moment when it is necessary to "read" the information "recorded" earlier. It has been experimentally shown that the characteristic lifetime of structures formed by liquid water molecules is measured in picoseconds, that is, an interval of about 10-12 seconds. This period is determined by the lifetime of hydrogen bonds between neighboring water molecules. Even without additional assessments, it is clear that during the time it takes to manipulate the test tubes, the water will have time to repeatedly change its state, "forgetting" everything that they tried to "inform" it earlier.

Water memory is very often directly correlated with homeopathy, which is not entirely correct. Indeed, the memory of water could explain the mechanism of action of homeopathic dilutions, but it is not a fundamental principle. The creator of homeopathy, Christian Hahnemann, explained its effect by the principle of "like is treated like", when a drug that causes certain symptoms, in extremely small dilutions, allegedly acts in the opposite way, that is, heals these very symptoms. In addition, homeopathic medicines often exist not in the form of aqueous solutions, but in the form of sugar balls, so their effect cannot be explained by the memory of water alone, a "sugar memory" is also needed.

2. Charging water at a distance

"I will ask you to prepare creams: the simplest, the most neutral, so that I can charge them during the session."
Allan Chumak.

What is being claimed?

Water can be "charged" with the help of a certain signal, usually electromagnetic, which makes it acquire the properties of a solution of some specific substance. The signal carrying the information can be digitized and transmitted over a distance using any means of communication. Thus, with the help of special manipulations, having only clean water and the right signal available, it is possible to reproduce the properties of a certain solution, for example, a medicine. In some cases, it is believed that water remembers information in general, such as emotions, good or bad words.

Where did this come from?

In the academic sphere, the same Jacques Benveniste spoke about charging water at a distance for the first time – this was the next step of his group after the alleged discovery of water memory. However, after the failure of the experiment under the supervision of the commission, Benveniste lost credibility in academic circles, so all subsequent experiments conducted by him received almost no attention from his colleagues.

Another classic example of works in this field are the works of a Japanese author Masaru Emoto, who became famous for his statements that water is able to absorb information, and for this it is not even necessary to irradiate it. It is enough to place a piece of paper with a certain word on the lid of a container with water so that the emotion or information corresponding to this word is recorded in the structure of water. To prove his hypothesis, Emoto cited the appearance of microcrystals of water "charged" with various information. As expected, "positive" emotions, like classical music, for example, give water crystals (according to the results of Emoto) the correct, beautiful shape. At the same time, negative emotions or music in the rock or metal genres lead to the formation of ugly, deformed crystals.

The experiments of Benveniste and Emoto in Russia have not received such wide publicity as the work of another specialist in charging water at a distance – Allan Vladimirovich Chumak. During his TV shows, the healer charged water (and not only) with the help of passes with his hands, although water was not considered the main object of influence: it was possible to heal without it, just sitting in front of the TV. Unlike Benveniste, who uses scientific methodology to confirm the presence of memory in water, Chumak explained his talent as a gift from above and did not appeal to the French scientist, although at one time he worked with him. Precisely because Chumak did not use pseudoscientific concepts, his actions did not attract the close attention of scientific commissions, with the exception of mentioning among other television psychics – Anatoly Kashpirovsky and Yuri Longo.

How is it really going?

None of the creators and adherents of this myth even tried to come up with a mechanism according to which electromagnetic radiation could record information directly into the water. Thus, Masaru Emoto, despite the popularization of his own experimental data, never gave a detailed methodology of the experiment, and also did not have peer-reviewed publications, for which he was repeatedly criticized by the scientific community. Therefore, apart from the theory of water memory, which was mentioned above, there is nothing to discuss here. We would like to add that from the point of view of physical chemistry, we should not expect a direct correspondence between the structure of water and ice. Indeed, when ice melts in water, large clusters with a structure similar to ice are found, but when heated at least to room temperature, this structure is completely lost and the water becomes amorphous.

Is it possible to charge water (if we accept the hypothesis of the existence of its memory) using a conventional household TV? Since we do not know the exact mechanism of information transmission to water, we can only assume how such an experiment should take place. Once charged water should affect cellular processes in a certain way, the characteristic size of clusters carrying information should be comparable to typical biological macromolecules, that is, not exceed tens of nanometers. The TV mainly emits electromagnetic waves of the visible spectrum, the wavelength of which ranges from 400 to 760 nanometers. Nevertheless, we can recall that televisions at the time of Chumak's broadcasts were kinescopic, that is, their main working element was a cathode ray tube. A beam of electrons was formed in it, which fell on a fluorescent screen. It is known that secondary X-ray radiation is created in such devices, which is characterized by a wavelength of 10 nanometers or less. Fortunately, most of the X-ray radiation of the kinescope is absorbed by a special metallized glass. The residual radiation has such a low intensity that it will be quickly absorbed by the material of the container in which the water is in front of the TV. Therefore, even in the case of the existence of water memory, its charging by means of a TV looks unlikely.

3. Structured water

– And the oceans into which frozen rivers flow? <...>
And the keys that feed frozen rivers and lakes,
and all the underground springs that feed these keys... – They'll freeze, damn it! <...>
– And the rain?
– Would touch the ground and turn into solid pellets,

 in ice-nine, and the end of the world would have come.  (urt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle".

What is being claimed?

Not only the memory of water as the ability to reproduce certain information, but also the structure of water itself plays a huge role in biological processes in the body. So, around healthy cells, water is structured in a special way, and near sick cells, this structure is lost. In the event that a person drinks structured water (meltwater, fresh juices, fruits and vegetables, water from special structurizer devices), the body can immediately use it in its work. If the water was unstructured (tap, boiled, distilled), the body spends considerable effort on its structuring, which leads to poor health. At the same time, some methods of obtaining structured water rely on "natural" approaches. So, you can often find a recommendation to cook meltwater in natural winter frost, and not in the freezer of the refrigerator. Structured water, according to its adherents, has a number of more specific effects, but we will not go into them.

Where did this come from?

It is difficult to name the exact moment of the origin of this idea, but you can recall several of its precursors. One of them is the concept of "polyvodes", which was discussed in the USSR in the early 1960s, but which was refuted by the mid-1970s. As a result of the passage of pure water through thin quartz capillaries, the formation of the same pure (presumably) water was observed, which, however, possessed radically new properties. Thus, the "polyvoda" was denser, boiled at elevated, and froze at a lower temperature, and also had a colossal (compared to ordinary water) viscosity. The name "polyvode" was proposed following the hypothesis of the formation of polymer chains in which water molecules acted as monomers. There was even a hypothesis that polyvoda could polymerize ordinary water upon contact with it. This idea, in particular, is played out in the work of Kurt Vonnegut "Cradle for a cat". When the phenomenon of polyvodes became interested all over the world, and most importantly, many laboratories managed to reproduce the results of the Soviet discoverers, the question arose about the theoretical justification of polyvodes. In the following years, several relevant theories were created, but with closer control of the experiment, it turned out that all the unusual properties of polyvodes were explained by the presence of impurities in it. Unlike the same Benveniste, the authors of the first works on polyvode admitted their own mistakes, and the phenomenon was forgotten, at least in scientific circles. 

How is it really going?

Unlike the ideas about water memory, the concept of "water cluster" is not pseudoscientific and is widely studied in physical chemistry. We can talk about both small clusters, which include from two to eight water molecules, and larger clusters, including several hundred molecules. The characteristic dimensions of such objects can reach several nanometers. The study of such structures plays an important role in determining the role of water as a solvent in many chemical and biological processes. However, this topic does not affect the existence of long-lived clusters that would be able to carry any information on macroscopic time scales. The characteristic lifetime of the cluster still does not exceed the lifetime of hydrogen bonds too much and lies within a few picoseconds (at room temperature).

Experiments on the crystallization of water from different sources are often cited as proof of the special properties of structured water. So, tap or distilled water in these experiments usually forms "ugly" and asymmetrical crystals, and structured water – beautiful and symmetrical. The lack of a detailed methodology for these experiments, as well as publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, only suggests that these data are not reproducible. Suffice it to note that in reality everything is exactly the opposite: the more chemically pure the water, the more correct and "more beautiful" its crystals will be, so that the distillate should occupy almost the first place in such a "beauty contest".

4. Oxygen, electrolyzed and deuterium-free water

"In the process of applying a new special technology, the distance between water molecules increases, and this free space is occupied by additional oxygen molecules. Thus, a long-term stable connection of water and oxygen is ensured," – an unknown author about oxygen water.

What is being claimed?

There are relatively simple ways to give ordinary drinking water unique healing properties. These methods include oxygen saturation so that it enters the bloodstream through the gastrointestinal tract, electrolysis of water to form alkaline water, acidic water and atomic hydrogen, which serve as antioxidants and contribute to the improvement of the body, as well as the removal of impurities from the water of a heavier isotope of hydrogen - deuterium, which normally contains about 0.01 percent. Deuterium-free, or "light", water also contributes to the overall improvement of the body and has a therapeutic effect in cancer.

Where did this come from?

All these statements are based on the desire to find something unusual in ordinary water, that is, to perform various manipulations with the components of the water itself. It was not easy to track the exact moment when such ideas appeared. Thus, oxygen cocktails appeared in Soviet medicine back in the 1960s, but, unlike oxygen water itself, oxygen in a cocktail is retained in a dense foam cap capable of delivering a significant amount of oxygen to the gastrointestinal tract. Deuterium-free water, from the point of view of biological applications, was first mentioned in the early 1990s. Around the same time, electrolyzed or ionized water gained popularity in Japan.

How is it really going?

Of the three listed types of water, the easiest to deal with is probably oxygen water. The fact is that, unlike carbon dioxide, oxygen does not dissolve in water so well: it is enough for fish, but not enough to have a real impact on human gas exchange, so the idea of oxygen water itself looks poorly realized from the point of view of physical chemistry. That is why, with the maximum saturation of water with oxygen, the amount of gas that one liter of water will bring into the intestine (even if we consider its absorbability to be 100 percent) will be comparable to the oxygen content in one breath of an adult. Thus, even the simplest estimates refute the claims of a significant tonic effect from the use of oxygen water. All statements about the existence of "special technologies" that allow in some other way to saturate water with oxygen at room temperature and in the absence of additional chemical impurities also do not stand up to the simplest criticism from the side of basic thermodynamics.

With electrolyzed and deuterium-free water, everything turns out to be a little more complicated, since in both cases there are published studies that somehow demonstrate the positive effect of these drugs. For example, the use of deuterium-free water slowed down (PDF) the death of a population of mice affected by cancerous tumors. However, studies on deuterium-free and electrolyzed water have turned out to be very localized (electrolyzed water is studied and consumed mainly in Asia) and have not been widely distributed in the scientific community. Their principles remain not fully understood, and often contradictory. In the case of electrolyzed water, for example, the question of how "acidic" and "alkaline" water differs from a solution of acid and alkali, respectively, remains unclear.

5. Silver water

"Creepy city: there are no girls, no one plays cards. Yesterday I stole a silver spoon in a tavern – no one even noticed:
it was considered that she did not exist at all."
(from the movie "Formula of Love").

What is being claimed?

Water infused in a silver dish or on a silver object (ruble, spoon) does not spoil for a long time, has a strong bactericidal effect and is useful for internal use. A special case is that holy water has a healing effect due to the fact that silver utensils are used during the consecration ceremony.

Where did this come from?

The healing properties of silver have been spoken about for a very long time: the first mentions can be found in Herodotus and in subsequent Roman sources. Basically, we are talking about infusing water in silverware, which supposedly increases its shelf life. For a long time, silver in various forms was used to disinfect water and treat wounds, but with the advent of more effective antiseptics, silver faded into the background. In modern practice, silver in the form of solutions of its salts or colloidal particles can be used, for example, for "soft" disinfection of water, for example, in some filters for drinking water.

What is the real situation?

This myth is only partly a myth. Indeed, silver in ionic form, like many other heavy metals, for example, copper, has a bacteriostatic and (in high concentrations) bactericidal effect. This means that only in relatively high concentrations solutions of silver salts are able to effectively kill bacteria, but more often they only slow down the growth of microorganisms. In 2014, the World Health Organization published a large report (PDF) on the prospects of using silver as a disinfectant. In short, the conclusions of this work boil down to the fact that, despite the large volume of modern studies of silver ions and its colloidal solutions, not in all cases the data provided are sufficient to make a final conclusion about the effectiveness of such drugs for use in water treatment. At the same time, silver, like other heavy metals, accumulates in the body and it is quite possible to be poisoned by it (this disease is called argyrosis), therefore there is a norm of the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of silver, the excess of which in drinking water does not bode well.

Another problem with silver water is the fact that a silver spoon or ruble dipped in water makes a negligible contribution to the silver content in ionic form. That is why the infusion of water on silver objects has a rather weak effectiveness in terms of disinfection. For the same reason, touching water with a silver cross during consecration does not give water any special properties, except for symbolic value due to its role in many religious rituals. It is important to remember that the consecration of water does not change its physico-chemical properties, and most importantly, it does not purify it. Because of this, curious cases also occur: An analysis of a sample of holy springs and ceremonial water vessels in Austria showed that in 86 percent of cases the water under study is not suitable for drinking due to the presence of harmful microorganisms in it. Returning to silver: if there is still a need to saturate the water with its ions, then for this you can add a soluble silver salt (nitrate, for example), or use a special ionizer device. Its use really makes it possible to achieve a bactericidal effect, but with its help it is very easy to exceed the MPC of silver in drinking water. In this case, regular use of ionized silver water can lead to serious health consequences.

As mentioned above, we have prepared this material together with the company "Aquafor". Therefore, we will conclude our analysis of myths about water with a simple but important reminder: you need to drink water purified by modern filters created on the basis of scientific data, and not pseudoscientific myths. Such as, for example, Aquaphor filters.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  18.04.2017