Jacques Benveniste

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Jacques Benveniste (born March 12, 1935 in Paris , † October 3, 2004 ibid) was a French medic .

Life

Jacques Benveniste worked at the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM), the French health and research institute, and in 1984 was appointed director of the institute's research department. In 1970 he discovered the "platelet activating factor" (PAF) , a growth factor related to angiogenesis .

Parascience

Benveniste was best known for his claim that highly diluted antigens could influence white blood cells ( leukocytes ) through a “memory effect ” of the water . A report on this breakthrough news, especially for homeopathy , was even published in the renowned science magazine Nature in 1988 and sparked years of controversy.

However, other researchers were unable to confirm the effect in the experiment. Even more: under the supervision of the Nature editor-in-chief John Maddox and the American pseudoscience opponent James Randi , Benveniste himself was unable to repeat his own results.

The final end for Benveniste's thesis of the “memory of water” ( see also : water cluster ) came in the form of the open and unbiased physicist and Nobel Prize winner Georges Charpak : He suggested a series of experiments to Benveniste, which were then carried out under his supervision . The result of these tests was devastating for Benveniste: at most random effects could be demonstrated. In 1995, Charpak finally stated that Benveniste's “water manipulation” had no detectable effect. Regardless of this, Benveniste later expanded his position by claiming that the information from the water could also be transmitted via telephone or the Internet .

In July 2010 the Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier presented a new method for the detection of viral infections at a conference. He claimed that Benveniste was correct in his claim that solutions containing the DNA of disease-causing bacteria and viruses such as HIV were able to send out low-frequency radio waves that caused the surrounding water molecules to organize themselves into nanostructures. These water molecules could in turn emit radio waves. Water retains these properties even if virus or bacterial DNA is no longer detectable. The radio waves can be used to identify diseases and can even be encrypted as a frequency transmitted over the Internet and the original DNA can be cloned at another location in water treated with these radio waves with the help of PCR .

Jacques Benveniste received the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice : 1991 and 1998. The magazine Nature never withdrew the controversial report, but described in an obituary in October 2004 that the report was largely not taken seriously by scientists and could not be reproduced anywhere and that Benveniste continued his research mainly in the privately funded Digital Biology Laboratory in Clamart and not at INSERM.

Related theories

The thesis for the memory effect of Benveniste, together with other than para- or pseudo-scientific labeled approaches of Masaru Emoto , Viktor Schauberger , Grander u. a. the starting point for the treatment, production and marketing of so-called "revitalized" water and devices for water revitalization. The Grander technology for "revitalizing tap water" has also been proven to be ineffective and, according to a court ruling, can be called "esoteric nonsense".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ E. Davenas, F. Beauvais, J. Amara, M. Oberbaum, B. Robinzon et al .: Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE. In: Nature. Volume 333, pp. 816-818. PMID 2455231
  2. ↑ Christoph Drösser, Ulrich Schnabel: Can water think? Researchers and esotericists want to find out the secrets of water. In: The time . No. 49, November 27, 2003 and Ulrich Schnabel: Diluted Truth - Does water have a memory? The dispute has been raging for years. A million dollars beckoned. In: The time. No. 49, November 27, 2003.
  3. ↑ SJ Hirst, NA Hayes, J. Burridge, FL Pearce, JC Foreman: Human basophil degranulation is not triggered by very dilute antiserum against human IgE. In: Nature. Volume 366, pp. 525-527. PMID 8255290
  4. ↑ JH Ovelgonne, AW Bol, toilet Hop, R. van Wijk: Mechanical agitation of very dilute antiserum against IgE has no effect on basophil staining properties. In: Experientia. Volume 48 (5), pp. 504-508. PMID 1376282
  5. ↑ J. Maddox, J. Randi, WW Stewart: "High-dilution" experiments a delusion (for example: "High-dilution" experiments (are) an illusion). In: Nature. Volume 334, pp. 287-291. PMID 2455869
  6. ↑ J. Benveniste, P. Jurgens, W. Hsueh, J. Aissa: Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link. In: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - Program and abstracts of papers to be presented during scientific sessions AAAAI / AAI.CIS Joint Meeting February 21-26, 1997. Poster
  7. ↑ P. Ball: 'Memory of water' biologist dies after heart surgery. In: Nature. 431 (7010), Oct 14, 2004, p. 729.
  8. ↑ What is it about Grander water? on: homepage.univie.ac.at
  9. ↑ Grander Wasser: Designation "esoteric nonsense" permitted. on: tirv1.orf.at , September 7, 2006.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Benveniste, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French medic
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2004
Place of death Paris