Friday, June 4, 2010
A start-up in La Jolla expects to transform the way medicine is delivered.
The company says its based on the work of several Nobel physicists
including Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman. A video of Feynman giving a talk
on QED is posted on its website. Based on QED, Nativis claims
pharmaceuticals have electromagnetic signatures that convey the same effect
as the drug itself. It's homeopathy done backwards. Homeopathy starts with
medicine and dilutes it sequentially until its just water. Nativis, by
contrast, starts with pure water and exposes it to very low frequency
electromagnetic radiation, which of course does nothing at all to the
water. However, Nativis is convinced that the ordinary water would now
behave like medicine. This is lunacy, and not even original lunacy. In
1988 Jacques Beneveniste, a French biochemist, convinced himself that water
can be made homeopathic by exposing it to low-frequency electromagnetic
waves. I challenged him publicly in the May 17, 1999 issue of Time
magazine to an Intercontinental test involving an exchange of samples.
Benveniste agreed but said he needed a little time. Weeks grew into months.
Months into Years. He died five years later without completing the test. I
think I know why. Homeopathists, see ordinary water and convince
themselves its magic water. Nativis must do the same.
A team at Rochester University led by neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard
studied the production of adenosine when pain is inflicted on the hind paw
of a mouse. Adenosine is a neuromodulator that reduces pain. If the mouse
is then stuck with an acupuncture needle, the production of adenosine
persists for a longer time. I suppose it might last longer still if the
mouses tail is pulled. Nedergaard says her study may open the way to
making acupuncture more effective. Even Daniel Cressy writing in Nature
said the study "makes acupuncture seem less alternative," but I cant see
how. The acupuncture needle was inserted just below the knee in the Zusanli
point, which is for the stomach, not for paws. This study does nothing to
answer the basic scientific questions: what is the evidence for the
meridians or for the mysterious qi, and how are acupuncture points
determined? Pressed on these points, acupuncturists fall back on the Yellow
Emperors Classic of Medicine, but that book is at least 2000 years old.
No matter, they freelance a lot..
I don't like cell phones and I don't like writing about cell phones but the
damned issue just won't go away. It generates more mail than any other
issue. I have explained in irrefutable detail why individual microwave
photons do not create mutant strands of DNA. Yes, but microwaves do cook
meat even though they cant break chemBonds directly.. They start them
vibrating, which means the atoms get hot. How hot? Not very. First of all,
cell phones do not emit a lot of energy. Secondly, evolution found ways to
keep our brain cool even if we go hatless under a summer sun, and run
marathons besides. Heatstroke is rare. We hardly even run a fever. We have
a great coolant called blood and capillaries that quickly expand to
increase the flow rate if needed.
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