water has memory research paper

New Frontiers in Physical Science Research Vol. 8

How Water Retains Information: a.k.a. ‘Water Memory’

• Alex Hankey

New Frontiers in Physical Science Research Vol. 8 , 22 February 2023 , Page 155-168 https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/nfpsr/v8/4500E Published: 2023-02-22

• View Article

The topic of this chapter concerns a great scientific controversy of past decades: claims that liquid water has ‘memory’. Here we debunk that claim by showing that, though water retains information about its prior states; that should not be called a ‘memory’. Memory implies that information is available to be recalled, i.e. ‘remembered’. Such is definitely not the case.

Obviously, water cannot store digital information; that would require a stable substrate which water cannot provide. Water’s microscopic structure is unstable; the make-up of individual molecules changes continuously as hydrogen bonds between them rearrange themselves, constantly shifting H-atoms from one O-atom to another. Any ‘information retained’ in water must be stored differently from Shannon information; to call it a ‘memory’ would end in scientific rejection – and rightly so!

Certain eminent scientists have, however, contended that, if liquid water’s microstructure is involved, information retention might occur. This chapter shows how it becomes possible. The key is this: in contrast to other substances, liquid water can be assigned two kinds of entropy. The first is classical, i.e. macroscopic, its heat content; the second is quantum i.e. microscopic and calculated in terms of microstates of water polymolecules.

Comparing these two forms Method. Result: the first exerts restrictions on the second: numbers of polymolecule are so vast that quantum entropies tend to exceed heat entropies. But those cannot be exceeded. At any temperature, T, forms taken by polymolecules are restricted. That restriction, IR(T), constitutes an entirely novel form of information, different from the previously known four. Arising from restrictions on a variable’s range, it parallels Fisher Information. We have therefore proposed to name it, ‘Quantum Fisher Information’.

Finally, four properties are derived that agree with Homeopathy lore: dependence on a. initial chemical; b. method of dilution, including c. forced vibration; and d. temperature, a maximum.

• polymolecules
• Shannon information
• quantum fisher information

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Icy claim that water has memory

By Lionel Milgrom

11 June 2003

Claims do not come much more controversial than the idea that water might retain a memory of substances once dissolved in it. The notion is central to homeopathy, which treats patients with samples so dilute they are unlikely to contain a single molecule of the active compound, but it is generally ridiculed by scientists.

Holding such a heretical view famously cost one of France’s top allergy researchers, Jacques Benveniste, his funding, labs and reputation after his findings were discredited in 1988.

Yet a paper is about to be published in the reputable journal Physica A claiming to show that even though they should be identical, the structure of hydrogen bonds in pure water is very different from that in homeopathic dilutions of salt solutions. Could it be time to take the “memory” of water seriously?

The paper’s author, Swiss chemist Louis Rey, is using thermoluminescence to study the structure of solids. The technique involves bathing a chilled sample with radiation. When the sample is warmed up, the stored energy is released as light in a pattern that reflects the atomic structure of the sample.

When Rey used the method on ice he saw two peaks of light, at temperatures of around 120 K and 170 K. Rey wanted to test the idea, suggested by other researchers, that the 170 K peak reflects the pattern of hydrogen bonds within the ice. In his experiments he used heavy water (which contains the heavy hydrogen isotope deuterium), because it has stronger hydrogen bonds than normal water.

Unexplained results

Aware of homeopaths’ claims that patterns of hydrogen bonds can survive successive dilutions, Rey decided to test samples that had been diluted down to a notional 10 -30 grams per cubic centimetre – way beyond the point when any ions of the original substance could remain. “We thought it would be of interest to challenge the theory,” he says.

Each dilution was made according to a strict protocol, and vigorously stirred at each stage, as homeopaths do. When Rey compared the ultra-dilute lithium and sodium chloride solutions with pure water that had been through the same process, the difference in their thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure water was still there (see graph).

“Much to our surprise, the thermoluminescence glows of the three systems were substantially different,” he says. He believes the result proves that the networks of hydrogen bonds in the samples were different.

Phase transition

Martin Chaplin from London’s South Bank University, an expert on water and hydrogen bonding, is not so sure. “Rey’s rationale for water memory seems most unlikely,” he says. “Most hydrogen bonding in liquid water rearranges when it freezes.”

He points out that the two thermoluminescence peaks Rey observed occur around the temperatures where ice is known to undergo transitions between different phases. He suggests that tiny amounts of impurities in the samples, perhaps due to inefficient mixing, could be getting concentrated at the boundaries between different phases in the ice and causing the changes in thermoluminescence.

But thermoluminescence expert Raphael Visocekas from the Denis Diderot University of Paris, who watched Rey carry out some of his experiments, says he is convinced. “The experiments showed a very nice reproducibility,” he told New Scientist . “It is trustworthy physics.” He see no reason why patterns of hydrogen bonds in the liquid samples should not survive freezing and affect the molecular arrangement of the ice.

After his own experience, Benveniste advises caution. “This is interesting work, but Rey’s experiments were not blinded and although he says the work is reproducible, he doesn’t say how many experiments he did,” he says. “As I know to my cost, this is such a controversial field, it is mandatory to be as foolproof as possible.”

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The Memory of Water: an overview

2007, Homeopathy

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The history of the Memory of Water

Affiliation.

• 1 Institut Andre Lwoff IFR89, 7, rue Guy Moquet-BP8, 94 801 Villejuif Cedex, France. [email protected]
• PMID: 17678810
• DOI: 10.1016/j.homp.2007.03.006

'Homeopathic dilutions' and 'Memory of Water' are two expressions capable of turning a peaceful and intelligent person into a violently irrational one,' as Michel Schiff points out in the introduction of his book 'The Memory of Water'. The idea of the memory of water arose in the laboratory of Jacques Benveniste in the late 1980s and 20 years later the debate is still ongoing even though an increasing number of scientists report they have confirmed the basic results. This paper, first provides a brief historical overview of the context of the high dilution experiments then moves on to digital biology. One working hypothesis was that molecules can communicate with each other, exchanging information without being in physical contact and that at least some biological functions can be mimicked by certain energetic modes characteristics of a given molecule. These considerations informed exploratory research which led to the speculation that biological signaling might be transmissible by electromagnetic means. Around 1991, the transfer of specific molecular signals to sensitive biological systems was achieved using an amplifier and electromagnetic coils. In 1995, a more sophisticated procedure was established to record, digitize and replay these signals using a multimedia computer. From a physical and chemical perspective, these experiments pose a riddle, since it is not clear what mechanism can sustain such 'water memory' of the exposure to molecular signals. From a biological perspective, the puzzle is what nature of imprinted effect (water structure) can impact biological function. Also, the far-reaching implications of these observations require numerous and repeated experimental tests to rule out overlooked artifacts. Perhaps more important is to have the experiments repeated by other groups and with other models to explore the generality of the effect. In conclusion, we will present some of this emerging independent experimental work.

Publication types

• Historical Article
• Evidence-Based Medicine*
• History, 20th Century
• Homeopathy / history*
• Indicator Dilution Techniques / history
• Luminescent Measurements
• Materia Medica

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Water Memory: What the Science Says

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find no shortage of articles claiming water’s memory is pseudoscience and that it’s simply “not accepted by the scientific community.”

It’s been said Truths pass through three stages.

They are ridiculed

They are violently opposed

They are accepted as self-evident

If water does, in fact, have memory, we’re somewhere between the first and second phase.

Conventional science  maintains it simply can’t be true. In popular media, a snowman well-known for his naivete claims water contains real memories. In the movie, this means actual scenes that can be made visible when frozen. 

The latter certainly brought water’s ability to hold memories to the forefront of the public mind. Many people, your clients included, will likely instantly think of the movie when you mention “water memory.”

Though, this is something you’ll want them to understand -- and you’ll soon see why.

The naked truth about water and memory

Realistically, there's no conceivable way freezing massive quantities of water would be able to show you what people were doing in a particular location decades ago. Beautiful ice sculptures don’t simply come to appear.

But that’s not what water’s memory is about.

Research into water's ability to hold memories started to solidify with Dr. Jacques Benveniste in 1988. Though, research in Russia began some 60 years earlier.

In his time, Dr. Benveniste published more than 300 scientific articles about molecular biology. He was one of the   most respected  scientists in his field. 

What he discovered about water   changed the scope of molecular biology and bioenergetics as we know it . Yet his work is largely ridiculed.

You see, his team took proteins and diluted them in water until there was nothing discernible left. The original cells were completely gone.

Now, what Benveniste did is different from homeopathy. With homeopathy, there is some of the substance still remaining, there’s just very little of it. Benveniste’s water had nothing of the original protein left.

Yet when he introduced his water to white blood cells, the blood cells reacted exactly the same as if the protein was there.

Based on this single study, water does have memory and it's capable of proving it.

Water's memory: hard to believe, but true

Despite the proof presented before their very eyes,   Nature   opted not to publish Dr. Benveniste's research. Remember, this was one of the most published and respected scientists in the field of molecular biology. Yet his research was completely denied. 

However, Benveniste’s work caught the eye of another notable scientist, Nobel prize winner, Dr. Luc Montagnier. 

Dr. Montagnier took water's memory to higher heights than Benveniste could have ever imagined.

He started in the same spot -- showing that water could contain memories of what it used to contain. 

Dr. Montagnier took a much more complex protein, DNA, and diluted it in water until no physical DNA was present. In fact, all that was present were some low frequency waves.

These waves, Dr. Montagnier reasoned, could be sent across the world and affect water over there. So he recorded the frequency with a magnetic coil, converted it into a .wav file and sent it to Italy.

When the .wav file successfully transferred the same frequency of the DNA to new water, two   major   leaps  in knowledge were made. 

The first gave water's memory more solid ground to stand on.

The second, and more shocking, is that water can transfer its memory via sound.

What does it all mean? 

Water ability to hold memories might seem impossible and like complete science fiction. But it has everything to do with what's at the very center of the universe:   energy .

What Dr. Montagnier uncovered isn't so much that water has memory, but that water can contain energy signals of previous inhabitants.   

After all, sound is energy in waves. Since he was able to find DNA's frequency and create a sound recording of it, DNA must be made of energy. And water must be able to not only retain that energy signal, but also transfer it.

This is not easy for the general public and conventional scientific community to understand. 

What water is really doing, though, is maintaining the   information   of what it previously contained. It’s how we arrived at the name, Infoceuticals.

Just like when you read a book, you’re able to retain the information from it even though it’s not right in front of you. Water works in a similar fashion.

This research forms the basis of what we do at NES Health.

Water has memory and we can feed it the information we want it to remember.

Water can share that information with other water in your body.

Peter Fraser, one of our founders, was able to record the healthy blueprint of a liver cell, for example.

By sharing this information, Infoceuticals are able to correct the body field, often succeeding when other methods have not.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20640822  

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Drinking Water Enhances Cognitive Performance: Positive Effects on Working Memory But Not Long-Term Memory

• Original Research
• Published: 30 September 2021
• Volume 6 , pages 67–73, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

• Caroline J. Edmonds   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7971-0918 1 ,
• Jacqueline Beeley 2 ,
• Isabella Rizzo 2 ,
• Paula Booth   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5885-8240 1 &
• Mark Gardner   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5637-8702 2  

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Previous studies suggest that acute water drinking interventions enhance working memory, particularly digit span. The aims of the present study were twofold. Firstly, to investigate whether the working memory enhancements extend to different components of working memory. Secondly, to evaluate whether drinking water would improve long-term memory task performance. Seventy-four adult participants completed baseline tests and then either drank 300 ml water or nothing. They completed a thirst scale, two working memory tests (digit span and Corsi blocks) and two long-term memory tests (picture recall and word recall). After this, the water group was offered 300 ml water and the control group did not have a drink. Following a 20 min interval, the measures were repeated. The results showed that both working memory tests were improved by drinking water, but long-term memory assessments were not affected. This study adds to the body of evidence that suggests that acute drinking interventions in adults enhance working memory, but not long-term memory, and that it may not be restricted to particular components of working memory.

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Edmonds, C.J., Beeley, J., Rizzo, I. et al. Drinking Water Enhances Cognitive Performance: Positive Effects on Working Memory But Not Long-Term Memory. J Cogn Enhanc 6 , 67–73 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-021-00225-4

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• Published: 06 May 2024

Venus water loss is dominated by HCO + dissociative recombination

• M. S. Chaffin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1939-4797 1   na1 ,
• E. M. Cangi 1   na1 ,
• B. S. Gregory 1 ,
• R. V. Yelle 2 ,
• J. Deighan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3667-902X 1 ,
• R. D. Elliott 1 &
• H. Gröller 2  

Nature volume  629 ,  pages 307–310 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Atmospheric chemistry
• Inner planets

Despite its Earth-like size and source material 1 , 2 , Venus is extremely dry 3 , 4 , indicating near-total water loss to space by means of hydrogen outflow from an ancient, steam-dominated atmosphere 5 , 6 . Such hydrodynamic escape likely removed most of an initial Earth-like 3-km global equivalent layer (GEL) of water but cannot deplete the atmosphere to the observed 3-cm GEL because it shuts down below about 10–100 m GEL 5 , 7 . To complete Venus water loss, and to produce the observed bulk atmospheric enrichment in deuterium of about 120 times Earth 8 , 9 , nonthermal H escape mechanisms still operating today are required 10 , 11 . Early studies identified these as resonant charge exchange 12 , 13 , 14 , hot oxygen impact 15 , 16 and ion outflow 17 , 18 , establishing a consensus view of H escape 10 , 19 that has since received only minimal updates 20 . Here we show that this consensus omits the most important present-day H loss process, HCO + dissociative recombination. This process nearly doubles the Venus H escape rate and, consequently, doubles the amount of present-day volcanic water outgassing and/or impactor infall required to maintain a steady-state atmospheric water abundance. These higher loss rates resolve long-standing difficulties in simultaneously explaining the measured abundance and isotope ratio of Venusian water 21 , 22 and would enable faster desiccation in the wake of speculative late ocean scenarios 23 . Design limitations prevented past Venus missions from measuring both HCO + and the escaping hydrogen produced by its recombination; future spacecraft measurements are imperative.

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Oxygen production from dissociation of Europa’s water-ice surface

Isotopic fractionation of water and its photolytic products in the atmosphere of Mars

Dry late accretion inferred from Venus’s coupled atmosphere and internal evolution

Data availability.

Tables containing all reactions used in the model, including their adopted rate coefficients and computed column rates, are provided in a supplementary PDF file accessible on the journal website. These rates are also accessible in the archived code repository listed below, which also includes our adopted photo cross-sections and all other source data used in our model. Model densities for all species, computed rates for reactions shown in Fig. 2 , assumed temperature and escape probabilities and computed photo rates are provided in Excel format in the online version of the paper; this file also includes data for our illustrative water-inventory timelines.  Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

All model code is available at github.com/emcangi/VenusPhotochemistry . The version of the model used to prepare the manuscript is archived on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10460004 .

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Acknowledgements

M.S.C., E.M.C., B.S.G. and R.D.E. were supported by NASA Solar System Workings grant 80NSSC19K0164 and Planetary Science Early Career Award grant 80NSSC20K1081. E.M.C. was also supported by NASA FINESST award 80NSSC22K1326. M.S.C. and E.M.C. thank M. Landis for helpful discussions about water delivery.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: M. S. Chaffin, E. M. Cangi

Authors and Affiliations

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

M. S. Chaffin, E. M. Cangi, B. S. Gregory, J. Deighan & R. D. Elliott

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

R. V. Yelle & H. Gröller

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Contributions

M.S.C. oversaw the study, performed final model calculations and the photochemical equilibrium calculation and wrote the initial text of the paper. E.M.C. developed the H-bearing and D-bearing photochemical model and nonthermal escape calculation originally used at Mars with a reaction network provided by R.V.Y. and performed initial model calculations for Venus. B.S.G. developed and ran the Monte Carlo model to generate escape probability curves. R.D.E. initially developed the Monte Carlo escape model with support from J.D. and H.G. H.G. performed pilot studies of HCO + -driven loss in the Mars atmosphere. All authors contributed to the interpretation and presentation of model results.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. S. Chaffin .

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Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

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Nature thanks David Grinspoon and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 model densities for all species..

The six panels function only to separate species for clarity.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Key photochemical model inputs.

a , Temperature profiles for neutrals, ions and electrons adapted from the inputs in ref.  28 . b , Adopted eddy diffusion profile and molecular diffusion coefficients for H and O atoms.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Implications of HCO + -driven loss for Venus ocean scenarios.

a , Escaping H production rates for the two most important processes in our model. b , Schematic water loss history of Venus.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

This file contains Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Tables. Merged PDF containing tables of reactions used in the model, assumed reaction rate coefficients and computed equilibrium model column rates.

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Chaffin, M.S., Cangi, E.M., Gregory, B.S. et al. Venus water loss is dominated by HCO + dissociative recombination. Nature 629 , 307–310 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07261-y

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Received : 03 October 2023

Accepted : 29 February 2024

Published : 06 May 2024

Issue Date : 09 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07261-y

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