Friday, October 9, 2015

Chapter 4 - Grasping at Straws: A Journal Article

     The underlying molecular mechanism for how water is able to remember the substances that were dissolved in it and its subsequent transformation into a homeopathic remedy has yet to be discovered primarily due to the fact that it doesn't even remotely exist. This bit of information does not deter proponents of homeopathy from seeking some form of chemical mechanism. An article published by H. Walach in the 2003 volume of Research in Complementary Medicine, in its native German Forschende Komplementärmedizin, attempts to use the concept of quantum entanglement as a proposed solution to homeopathy's evidence problem.
     Quantum entanglement, in it's most simple form, is the idea that two particles interact in such a way that they can only be described as a quantum state, not independently. The result of this pairing is that any effect on one molecule is instantaneously transferred to the other molecule regardless of the distance between the two. H. Wallach's postulation that homeopathy involves not only a state of quantum entanglement in the remedy itself (between the water and the originating substance), but also undergoes a quantum entanglement reaction with the patient's body (between the individual symptoms of a patient and the general symptoms of the remedy) is an absolute scientific impossibility.

An explanation of quantum entanglement using photons

To get two particles in a quantum entangled state takes weeks of attempts, not to mention tremendous amounts of energy. Even under ideal conditions, physicists have trouble getting particles to entangle on a quantum level. The likelihood that homeopathy happens to be the interactions of two separate quantum entanglement systems is so infinitesimally small that it's no surprise that homeopaths see it as being incredibly likely.






References:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/36/db/fe/36dbfe0432f8ec0dbfe90ce51f47ef7b.jpg
Forsch Komplementärmed Klass Naturheilkd 2003;10:192–200 (DOI:10.1159/000073475)
http://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/73475

2 comments:

  1. Quantum entanglement seems like a pretty far-fetched idea, especially when it is supposed to explain how a "medication" is supposed to work. I don't think I'd be to keen on taking something for an ailment that has this small a chance of even getting to a state where the mechanism for working can be carried out.

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  2. This is my first time to hear about this physical phenomenon. Very interesting.

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