On 2015 Aug 29, Rafael Najmanovich commented:
Beyond the fact that homeopathy to be true would invalidate most of what we know of physics and chemistry it begs an answer to the issue below that Tim Minchin sings:
"It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it! Water has memory! And while it's memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite It somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it!"
On 2015 Mar 09, Dana Ullman commented:
Jim Woodgett's comment is very typical of skeptics of homeopathy. First, homeopaths do not manufacturer their own homeopathic drugs, just as conventional physicians are not "drug manufacturers."
The researchers at India's Institute of Technology (IIT)(none of which were homeopaths) used standard homeopathic manufacturing methods to make the six different medicines, and using three different types of spectroscopy, the researchers found nanoparticles of each of the original medicines in the final solutions, despite dilutions of 1:100 six times, 30 times, and 200 times (with the typical 40 vigorous succussions/shakings of the solutions in-between each dilution).
Woodgett and his ilk are very humorous in suggesting that homeopathic medicines are "contaminated" with the precise "medicine" that was placed in the original water solution and that is listed on the label of the drug.
It is helpful when skeptics of homeopathy expose their ignorance of the subject in which they vigorously attack, and it is additionally typical that they maintain a deep arrogance despite their ignorance (this is a poor combination of characteristics for those of us who are truly interested in maintaining a good and healthy scientific attitude). What is worse is that Woodgett and his ilk are trying to defend "science" but are not modeling a good scientific aptitude themselves.
On 2015 Mar 09, Jim Woodgett commented:
It is quite bewildering that this hypothesis and study was ever published. It basically suggests that homeopaths, in preparing dilutions, do an incredibly lousy job of this simple task. The inherent flaws include:
There is no evidence that general homeopaths adhere to the very strict and unusual procedural limitations of pipetting at the meniscus as required here or allow sufficient time for the "nanoparticles" to "levitate" to that fraction for each of the 200 times the 100 fold dilutions are made.
The "levitation" process must be equivalent for all homeopathic ingredients (i.e. they must have the same physico-chemical properties regardless of composition).
There is clearly no means to reliably predict the effect of 200 serial dilutions if the dilution factor is variable.
This could be devastating if there was indeed a single virus particle in the final potion (e.g. Ebola). In essence, such a preparation would be an infectious agent.
Why do homeopaths claim that higher dilutions are stronger than lower dilutions?
The American Chemical Society is truly embarrassing itself in publishing such a terrible study, which is being referred to by practitioning homeopaths to support their beliefs: https://twitter.com/HomeopathicDana/status/574934072511746049
On 2015 Mar 09, Jim Woodgett commented:
It is quite bewildering that this hypothesis and study was ever published. It basically suggests that homeopaths, in preparing dilutions, do an incredibly lousy job of this simple task. The inherent flaws include:
There is no evidence that general homeopaths adhere to the very strict and unusual procedural limitations of pipetting at the meniscus as required here or allow sufficient time for the "nanoparticles" to "levitate" to that fraction for each of the 200 times the 100 fold dilutions are made.
The "levitation" process must be equivalent for all homeopathic ingredients (i.e. they must have the same physico-chemical properties regardless of composition).
There is clearly no means to reliably predict the effect of 200 serial dilutions if the dilution factor is variable.
This could be devastating if there was indeed a single virus particle in the final potion (e.g. Ebola). In essence, such a preparation would be an infectious agent.
Why do homeopaths claim that higher dilutions are stronger than lower dilutions?
The American Chemical Society is truly embarrassing itself in publishing such a terrible study, which is being referred to by practitioning homeopaths to support their beliefs: https://twitter.com/HomeopathicDana/status/574934072511746049
On 2015 Aug 29, Rafael Najmanovich commented:
Beyond the fact that homeopathy to be true would invalidate most of what we know of physics and chemistry it begs an answer to the issue below that Tim Minchin sings:
"It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it! Water has memory! And while it's memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite It somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it!"