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The Memory of Water
Dr. Jacques Benveniste died Sunday,
October 3, 2004
Dr. Jacques Benveniste died Sunday evening
October 3rd at the Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital in Paris, France.
Jacques Benveniste's funeral will be held in
Paris on Thursday, October 7 at 2:45 PM. Gathering at the main entrance
of the Père Lachaise cemetery, Bvd de Ménilmontant Paris, 20th.
Mr. Benveniste was born on March 12, 1935 in
Paris, France. Following his studies in medical school, he practiced
medicine in Parisian Hospitals, before serving as senior registrar for
the French Medical School. Early on, he dedicated himself to research,
in France and in the USA. He began working for INSERM (Institut de la
Santé et de la Recherche Médicale – French National Institute of Health
and Medical Research,) in 1973 where he was the head of several
departments (25, 131, 200) and in 1984 was appointed senior Research
Director.
Throughout his long
career, Jacques Benveniste published more than 300 scientific articles
and gained worldwide fame with his “Platelet Activating Factor” (PAF)
discovery in 1970.
On June 20, 1988, his
work made the headlines in the French daily Le Monde : “A French
discovery shakes our concept of Physics”, which itself was taken from an
article yet to appear in the very highly regarded British Scientific
Magazine, “Nature”. Research led by the distinguished Dr. Benveniste had
uncovered one of the main molecules responsible for asthma. Close
consultant to Jean-Pierre Chevènement, French Minister for Research
between 1981 and 1983, he worked on the discovery with 13 other
biologists, both French and foreign. These 13 colleagues confirmed and
co-signed the incredible experiment that he published under the title:
“The degranulation of human basophils induced by high dilutions of an
anti-IGE-anti-serum.” In other words, the researcher affirmed having
been able to make a blood cell react with a totally diluted solution of
water having contained an antibody. The biological information was
transmitted despite the molecule’s absence. Hence Dr. Benveniste
concluded, “Water has a memory”.
At this point, although
his findings deeply shook the scientific world, instead of returning to
a more orthodox path, he forged ahead. Changing his experimental
protocol several times in order to give a better basis for his results,
he was able to gradually propose an explanation to this phenomenon,
which up until then had been elusive. He concluded that for each active
molecule, there is a corresponding electromagnetic signal. Even when
successive dilutions showed no presence of the molecule, the signal
remained active. Thus he was able, year after year, against all odds, to
reveal this “unexplainable” phenomenon – an even greater feat due to his
modest means.
The effects of high
dilutions were reproduced a total of 7 times in 6 international
laboratories, completely independent of his own, as well as more than a
thousand times in his own laboratory, which he even equipped with a
robot to carry out the experiments without the need for human
intervention. How many times must an experiment be carried out before a
scientific fact is considered to be “reproducible”?
Controversies on the subject have
always detected errors, artifacts, or untruths, but all of which were
set straight within months. For the past 15 years, nothing has disproven
Dr. Benveniste’s findings.
On the contrary, research was able to continue
and benefit numerous scientific partnerships. Both the support from
INSERM – which kept him in his position, then named him emeritus when he
was to retire – and the support he received from the last two French
Presidential teams, enabled him to continue his research.
Moreover, his entourage set up a company,
DigiBio , founded in 1997, with powerful partners, which enabled him to
continue to finance his research. A North-American firm has bought the
non-exclusive rights to the company's seven patents. One of these --
dealing with wireless digital biology, i.e. recording and transmitting
biological activity as ".wav" sound files -- has been validated by the
US Patents Office.
This became possible, after a series of blind
experiments. An anticoagulant remedy was digitalized in San Diego by
this process. The file/signal received at INSERM by electronic mail was
transmitted to water, which in turn inhibited the coagulation in the
same way the original molecule had. See:
www.digibio.com/video.
The purchase of these rights is a sign that a
new approach, with a wide range of possible applications, is emerging in
biology, for example, detectors of toxic or microbe pollutants, whether
accidental or criminal, electro-magnetic virus antibodies, etc.
Those close to Jacques Benveniste are
determined to support the research, which is being deployed throughout
the world in digitalized biology.
Promoting his work will contribute to
sustaining freedom in research, putting emphasis on fact as opposed to
received ideas, which, while drawing human communities together, can
also hold back major innovations.
"When the fact that we come up against does not
agree with the predominant theory we have accepted, we must take the
fact and abandon the theory" (Claude Bernard)
Among scientifics that can testify of his work:
- Brian D. JOSEPHSON, Nobel Prize in Physics,
Cavendish Lab. (tel. : +44 1223 337260)
- Marie-Angèle HERMITTE, Director of Research,
CNRS ; Director of study, EHESS (tel. : +33 6 09 45 50 89)
- Yolène THOMAS, Director of Research, CNRS
(tel. : +33 6 09 75 27 78)
- Jacques TESTART, Director of Research,
INSERM (tel. : +33 1 46 54 99 49)
Contact : Laurent Benveniste —
+33 6 12 31 20 75 —
laurentbenveniste@wanadoo.fr
Detailed Curriculum
Born March 12, 1935 ; father of 5 children
Main scientific achievements
- Discovery of the “Platelet-Activating
Factor", 1970
- Article "memory of water", Nature, 1988,
that led to the development of Digital Biology.
- More than 300 scientific articles, 13 of
which have been quoted over 100 times.
Education
- 1951: High School diploma
- 1953 to 1960: Medical studies in Paris
- 1967: Medical Doctor at the Paris Medical
School
- 1967 to 1969: Senior Registrar Paris Medical
School
Hospital Positions
- 1956 – Clinical Clerk for Paris Hospitals
- 1959 – Intern for the Hospitals in the Paris
region
- 1961 – Intern for Paris Hospitals
- 1967 – Assistant Professor in the Paris
Hospitals
Scientific Positions
- 1965 – 1969 – Researcher at the Institute
for Cancer Research, CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique),
Villejuif (Dr. J.C. Salomon & Prof. W. Bernhardt);
- 1969 – 1972 – Research Associate, Department
of Experimental Pathology, Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, California (Drs
C.G. Cochrane and F.J. Dixon);
- 1973 – Research Head, INSERM Unit 25 Necker
Hospital, Paris, France;
- 1977 – Director of research laboratory on
immediate hypersensitivity and immunopathology, INSERM Unit 25
- 1978 – Junior Research Director INSERM Unit
131, Clamart;
- 1980 – Head of INSERM Unit 200: Allergy and
inflammation immunology, Clamart;
- 1984 – Senior Research Director INSERM;
- 1995 – Director of Digital Biology
Laboratory, Clamart;
- 2002 – Emeritus Research Director, INSERM.
Other Honors
- Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite
- CNRS Silver Medal
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