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Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost

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From: The Australian, 5 July 2010
 

A Nobel laureate who discovered the link between HIV and AIDS believes homeopathy stands on a sound scientific footing.

 

Luc_Montagnier-press_conference_Dec_06th,_2008-6.jpg
Luc Montagnier
Source: Holger Motzkau, cc-by-sa

French virologist Luc Montagnier shocked his peers at a prestigious international conference by presenting a new method for detecting viral infections that shows parallels with the basic principles of homeopathy.
While he left his fellow Nobel laureates - who regard homeopathy as quackery - shaking their heads, Montagnier's remarks were greeted with enthusiasm by homeopaths, who understandably seek greater credibility and recognition.

At the conference Montagnier said that solutions containing the DNA of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, including HIV, "are able to emit low-frequency radio waves" which cause the surrounding water molecules to arrange themselves into "nanostructures". These water molecules could in turn emit radio waves themselves.

 

He showed that water retained these properties even when the original solution was massively diluted to the point where the original DNA had effectively disappeared. In this way water could "remember" substances with which it had been in contact - and doctors could use these emissions to detect diseases.
 

For a scientist it is provocative to draw a parallel here with the principles of homeopathy.
Homeopathy operates on the principle that a toxic substance taken in small amounts cures the same symptoms it would cause in large doses.

Scientists reject this notion entirely and claim there is no evidence that water can retain or transmit information, and that the effects of homeopathic treatments have never been demonstrated in clinical trials. 

 
Doctors' growing concern is linked to the rising popularity of homeopathy. Even the Queen and David Beckham use homeopathic remedies.

Montagnier received the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his research in the 1980s that established the link between HIV and AIDS. That breakthrough paved the way for new therapies that have extended the lives of millions of people.

He recently attended the Nobel Laureates' meeting in Lindau, Germany, where 60 Nobel laureates and 700 other scientists gathered to discuss the latest developments in medicine, chemistry and physics.
 
Cristal Sumner of the British Homeopathic Association says Montagnier's work gives homeopathy "a genuine scientific ethos".
 

Sunday Times

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von Narayana Verlag