DNA teleportation

Last updated

DNA teleportation is a pseudoscientific claim which suggests that DNA can produce electromagnetic signals (EMS) that are measurable when highly diluted in water. The claim suggests these signals can allegedly be recorded, transmitted electronically and re-emitted on another distant pure water sample, where the DNA can replicate through polymerase chain reaction, despite the absence of the original DNA in the new water sample. [1] The idea was introduced by the Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier in 2009. [2] It is similar in principle to water memory, a similar pseudoscientific claim popularised by Jacques Benveniste in 1988. [3]

Contents

No independent research has been conducted to support the claim and to this day, there is no known or plausible scientific mechanism by which it might work. [4]

Electromagnetic signals from DNA

Bacterial DNA

In 2009, Montagnier and his collaborators published a paper titled "Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences" in which they reported that bacterial DNA can produce an electromagnetic signal (EMS) that is transferred through the cell culture medium. [2] In a medium of T lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell), they cultured bacterial DNA from Mycoplasma pirum and Escherichia coli . After filtering to remove all the bacteria, polymerase chain reaction was performed, which demonstrated the absence of remaining DNA. The solution was then incubated for two or three weeks, after which the presence of bacterial DNA was again detected. After serial dilution, they tested for electromagnetic radiation using a Fourier analysis technique developed by Jacques Benveniste and his team in 1996. [5] They detected electromagnetic frequencies only at high dilutions, ranging from 10−5 to 10−12. [2]

Viral DNA

In the same year, the team reported similar EMS from the DNA of HIV under high dilution of the culture medium. [6] They used the HIV1 strain as their prototype – it was the discovery of this virus that led to Montagnier sharing the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. [7] CEM cells (leukemia T-cells) were used to culture the HIV but no EMS was detected at any level of dilution. However, testing blood samples from HIV-infected patients (including those with symptoms of AIDS, those who have undergone antiretroviral therapy (ART), and untreated individuals) showed detectable EMS from ART-treated patients with undetectable viral loads at plasma dilution levels between 10−4 and 10−8. [6]

In 2015, Montagnier's team published another finding similar to the original one, but using bacterial and viral DNA. Here they claim that the electromagnetic waves could be explained in terms of an unspecified quantum effect. [8] [ non-primary source needed ]

The DNA transduction experiment

The experiment was first made in July 2005, and was repeated and filmed for a TV documentary in 2013, released on the French channel France 5 on 5 July 2014. [9] The online journal Ouvertures detailed the test protocol through interviews with Montagnier. [10]

Montagnier's experiment can be summarised as follows:

  1. A known water sample with 2 ng/ml of 104 bases DNA from an HIV infected patient is diluted by 10 into water and agitated for 15 seconds. After filtration to remove the DNA, the dilution and agitation steps are repeated 10 times, reaching high dilution levels of 10−10.
  2. The highly diluted sample emits electromagnetic signals (EMS) of low frequencies.
  3. This EMS is recorded by a microphone coil and saved as a 6-second WAV file at the lab in Paris.
  4. The WAV file is emailed to a partner team at the university of Benevento in Italy.
  5. The Italian team emits with a coil for 1 hour the EMS of the WAV file on a sample of distilled water in a sealed metal tube.
  6. The water sample is then placed in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine.
  7. The PCR machine in Italy produces DNA, 98% identical to the initial DNA in Paris.

Interpretation

It is proposed by Montagnier [11] that some molecules interact through electromagnetic waves instead of direct contact.[ failed verification ] These waves could be trapped into coherence domains formed by water molecules vacuum spheres at quantum scales. These structures would keep the signal in the absence of the original molecule. During the PCR step of the experiment, this remaining signal could have contained the necessary information for the initial DNA to be reconstructed.[ failed verification ]

The principle is similar to Benveniste's experiment from 1997 [12] where EMS was recorded from ovalbumine at the Northwestern University Medical School of Chicago, and transmitted through email to Benveniste's Digital Biology Laboratory in Clamart, France. After emitting the signal on pure water for 20 minutes, the water could cause an allergic shock on an isolated Guinea-pig heart allergic to ovalbumine. In both experiments the EMS reproduces the properties of the original molecules in their absence.

Responses and criticisms

The 2009 publications were immediately followed by scientific comments and criticisms of the credibility of the purported phenomenon, as well as the authenticity of the research. According to chemist Jeff Reimers of the University of Sydney, Australia, "If the results are correct, these would be the most significant experiments performed in the past 90 years, demanding re-evaluation of the whole conceptual framework of modern chemistry."

The credibility of the peer-review system of the journal Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences , in which the 2009 papers were published, was questioned. It was a new journal of which Montagnier is chairman of the editorial board. [13] Gary Schuster, at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, compared it to pathological science. [1] Paul Myers at the University of Minnesota Morris also described it as "pathological science." He described the paper as "one of the more unprofessional write-ups I've ever run across" and criticized the publication process as having an "unbelievable" turnaround time: "another suspicious sign are the dates. This paper was submitted on 03 January 2009, revised on 05 January 2009, and accepted on 06 January 2009", leading him to ask: "Who reviewed this, the author's mother? Maybe someone even closer. Guess who the chairman of the editorial board is: Luc Montagnier... This is the same nonsense and the same apparatus that Benveniste was peddling." [14] The influence of Benveniste can also be inferred from one of the co-authors, Jamal Aïssa, who was Benveniste's collaborator in the research in which they claim that water memory can be transported through the internet. [12] (It was for this research that Benveniste received his second IgNobel Prize in 1998. [15] )

Philip Ball wrote an analysis about Montagnier's work in Chemistry World , stating "It looks like one of the most astonishing discoveries in a century, yet it was almost entirely ignored." He claims this experiment was never replicated and that the work was "ignored for good reason, namely that it’s utterly implausible". [16]

On 28 June 2010, Montagnier spoke at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, [17] "where 60 Nobel prize winners had gathered, along with 700 other scientists, to discuss the latest breakthroughs in medicine, chemistry and physics." [18] He "presented a new method for detecting viral infections that bore close parallels to the basic tenets of homeopathy. Although fellow Nobel prize winners – who view homeopathy as quackery – were left openly shaking their heads, Montagnier's comments were rapidly embraced by homeopaths eager for greater credibility. Cristal Sumner, of the British Homeopathic Association, said Montagnier's work gave homeopathy 'a true scientific ethos'." [18]

Montagnier was also questioned about his beliefs on homeopathy, to which he replied: "I can’t say that homeopathy is right in everything. What I can say now is that the high dilutions are right. High dilutions of something are not nothing. They are water structures which mimic the original molecules. We find that with DNA, we cannot work at the extremely high dilutions used in homeopathy; we cannot go further than a 10−18 dilution, or we lose the signal. But even at 10−18, you can calculate that there is not a single molecule of DNA left. And yet we detect a signal." [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeopathy</span> Pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine

Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or "like cures like". Homeopathic preparations are termed remedies and are made using homeopathic dilution. In this process, the selected substance is repeatedly diluted until the final product is chemically indistinguishable from the diluent. Often not even a single molecule of the original substance can be expected to remain in the product. Between each dilution homeopaths may hit and/or shake the product, claiming this makes the diluent remember the original substance after its removal. Practitioners claim that such preparations, upon oral intake, can treat or cure disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kary Mullis</span> American biochemist (1944–2019)

Kary Banks Mullis was an American biochemist. In recognition of his role in the invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and was awarded the Japan Prize in the same year. PCR became a central technique in biochemistry and molecular biology, described by The New York Times as "highly original and significant, virtually dividing biology into the two epochs of before PCR and after PCR."

Molecular biology is the study of chemical and physical structure of biological macromolecules. It is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions.

Pathological science is an area of research where "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions." The term was first used by Irving Langmuir, Nobel Prize-winning chemist, during a 1953 colloquium at the Knolls Research Laboratory. Langmuir said a pathological science is an area of research that simply will not "go away"—long after it was given up on as "false" by the majority of scientists in the field. He called pathological science "the science of things that aren't so."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</span> One of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Alfred Nobel

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, are awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

Various fringe theories have arisen to speculate about purported alternative origins for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with claims ranging from it being due to accidental exposure to supposedly purposeful acts. Several inquiries and investigations have been carried out as a result, and each of these theories has consequently been determined to be based on unfounded and/or false information. HIV has been shown to have evolved from or be closely related to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in West Central Africa sometime in the early 20th century. HIV was discovered in the 1980s by the French scientist Luc Montagnier. Before the 1980s, HIV was an unknown deadly disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luc Montagnier</span> French virologist and Nobel laureate (1932–2022)

Luc Montagnier was a French virologist and joint recipient, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water memory</span> Refuted theory behind homeopathic remedies

Water memory is the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it even after an arbitrary number of serial dilutions. It has been claimed to be a mechanism by which homeopathic remedies work, even when they are diluted to the point that no molecule of the original substance remains, but there is no evidence for it.

The Benveniste affair was a major international controversy in 1988, when Jacques Benveniste published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature describing the action of very high dilutions of anti-IgE antibody on the degranulation of human basophils, findings what seemed to support the concept of homeopathy. As a condition for publication, Nature asked for the results to be replicated by independent laboratories. The controversial paper published in Nature was eventually co-authored by four laboratories worldwide, in Canada, Italy, Israel, and France.

A tetramer assay is a procedure that uses tetrameric proteins to detect and quantify T cells that are specific for a given antigen within a blood sample. The tetramers used in the assay are made up of four major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, which are found on the surface of most cells in the body. MHC molecules present peptides to T-cells as a way to communicate the presence of viruses, bacteria, cancerous mutations, or other antigens in a cell. If a T-cell's receptor matches the peptide being presented by an MHC molecule, an immune response is triggered. Thus, MHC tetramers that are bioengineered to present a specific peptide can be used to find T-cells with receptors that match that peptide. The tetramers are labeled with a fluorophore, allowing tetramer-bound T-cells to be analyzed with flow cytometry. Quantification and sorting of T-cells by flow cytometry enables researchers to investigate immune response to viral infection and vaccine administration as well as functionality of antigen-specific T-cells. Generally, if a person's immune system has encountered a pathogen, the individual will possess T cells with specificity toward some peptide on that pathogen. Hence, if a tetramer stain specific for a pathogenic peptide results in a positive signal, this may indicate that the person's immune system has encountered and built a response to that pathogen.

The most probable number method, otherwise known as the method of Poisson zeroes, is a method of getting quantitative data on concentrations of discrete items from positive/negative (incidence) data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serial dilution</span> Stepwise dilution of a substance in solution

A serial dilution is the stepwise dilution of a substance in solution. Usually the dilution factor at each step is constant, resulting in a geometric progression of the concentration in a logarithmic fashion. A ten-fold serial dilution could be 1 M, 0.1 M, 0.01 M, 0.001 M ... Serial dilutions are used to accurately create highly diluted solutions as well as solutions for experiments resulting in concentration curves with a logarithmic scale. A tenfold dilution for each step is called a logarithmic dilution or log-dilution, a 3.16-fold (100.5-fold) dilution is called a half-logarithmic dilution or half-log dilution, and a 1.78-fold (100.25-fold) dilution is called a quarter-logarithmic dilution or quarter-log dilution. Serial dilutions are widely used in experimental sciences, including biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, and physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gallo</span> American biomedical researcher

Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in establishing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and in the development of the HIV blood test, and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.

In homeopathy, homeopathic dilution is a process in which a substance is diluted with alcohol or distilled water and then vigorously shaken in a process called "succussion". Insoluble solids, such as quartz and oyster shell, are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration). The founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), asserted that the process of succussion activated the "vital energy" of the diluted substance, and that successive dilutions increased the "potency" of the preparation, although other strands of homeopathy disagreed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Barré-Sinoussi</span> French virologist and Nobel laureate (born 1947)

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division and Professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS. In 2008, Barré-Sinoussi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with her former mentor, Luc Montagnier, for their discovery of HIV. She mandatorily retired from active research on August 31, 2015 and fully retired by some time in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Roulland-Dussoix</span> Swiss microbiologist and molecular biologist (1936–2014)

Daisy Roulland-Dussoix was a Swiss molecular microbiologist. She was one of the discoverers of restriction enzymes during her doctoral studies. There is controversy over whether she should have received the 1978 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine, which was awarded to Hamilton O. Smith, Daniel Nathans, and Werner Arber.

Nobel disease or Nobelitis is the embracing of strange or scientifically unsound ideas by some Nobel Prize winners, usually later in life. It has been argued that the effect results, in part, from a tendency for Nobel winners to feel empowered by the award to speak on topics outside their specific area of expertise, although it is unknown whether Nobel Prize winners are more prone to this tendency than other individuals. Paul Nurse, co-winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, warned later laureates against "believing you are expert in almost everything, and being prepared to express opinions about most issues with great confidence, sheltering behind the authority that the Nobel Prize can give you". Nobel disease has been described as a tongue-in-cheek term.

The infinitesimally low concentration of homeopathic preparations, which often lack even a single molecule of the diluted substance, has been the basis of questions about the effects of the preparations since the 19th century. Modern advocates of homeopathy have proposed a concept of "water memory", according to which water "remembers" the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when consumed. This concept is inconsistent with the current understanding of matter, and water memory has never been demonstrated to exist, in terms of any detectable effect, biological or otherwise.

Jacques Benveniste was a French immunologist born in Paris. In 1979, he published a well-known paper on the structure of platelet-activating factor and its relationship with histamine. He was head of allergy and inflammation immunology at the French biomedical research agency INSERM.

References

  1. 1 2 Coghlan, Andy (21 January 2011). "Scorn over claim of teleported DNA". New Scientist . Reed Business Information Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Montagnier, L.; Aïssa, J.; Ferris, S.; Montagnier, J. L.; Lavallée, C. (2009). "Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences". Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences . 1 (2): 81–90. doi:10.1007/s12539-009-0036-7. PMID   20640822. S2CID   7158953.
  3. ↑ Davenas, E.; Beauvais, F.; Amara, J.; Oberbaum, M.; Robinzon, B.; Miadonnai, A.; Tedeschi, A.; Pomeranz, B.; Fortner, P.; Belon, P.; Sainte-Laudy, J.; Poitevin, B.; Benveniste, J. (1988). "Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE". Nature . 333 (6176): 816–818. Bibcode:1988Natur.333..816D. doi:10.1038/333816a0. PMID   2455231. S2CID   12992106.
  4. ↑ Dunn, John E (13 January 2011). "DNA molecules can 'teleport', Nobel Prize winner claims". Techworld . Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Benveniste, J.; Jurgens, P.; Aïssa, J. (1996). "Digital recording/transmission of the cholinergic signal". FASEB Journal. 10: A1479.
  6. 1 2 Montagnier, Luc; Aïssa, Jamal; Lavallée, Claude; Mbamy, Mireille; Varon, Joseph; Chenal, Henri (2009). "Electromagnetic detection of HIV DNA in the blood of AIDS patients treated by antiretroviral therapy". Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences . 1 (4): 245–253. doi:10.1007/s12539-009-0059-0. PMID   20640802. S2CID   29991828.
  7. ↑ "Luc Montagnier – Facts". Nobel Media AB. 2008. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  8. ↑ Montagnier, Luc; Del Giudice, Emilio; Aïssa, Jamal; Lavallee, Claude; Motschwiller, Steven; Capolupo, Antonio; Polcari, Albino; Romano, Paola; Tedeschi, Alberto; Vitiello, Giuseppe (2015). "Transduction of DNA information through water and electromagnetic waves". Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine . 34 (2): 106–112. arXiv: 1501.01620 . doi:10.3109/15368378.2015.1036072. PMID   26098521. S2CID   14826417.
  9. ↑ Manil, Christian (5 July 2014). "On a retrouvé la mémoire de l'eau" [We have found water memory]. France Télévisions . Doc en Stock, and France Télévisions. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  10. ↑ Lombard, Eric (8 September 2014). "Le Pr. Luc Montagnier a-t-il retrouvé la mémoire de l'eau ?" [Did Professor Luc Montagnier find water memory?]. Ouvertures (in French). Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  11. ↑ Montagnier, L.; Aissa, J.; Giudice, E. Del; Lavallee, C.; Tedeschi, A.; Vitiello, G. (8 July 2011). "DNA waves and water". Journal of Physics: Conference Series . 306 (1): 012007. arXiv: 1012.5166 . Bibcode:2011JPhCS.306a2007M. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/306/1/012007. S2CID   1810576.
  12. 1 2 Benveniste, J.; Jurgens, P.; Hsueh, W.; Aïssa, J. (1997). "Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link". Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology . 99 (1): S101–S200. doi: 10.1016/S0091-6749(97)81064-0 .
  13. ↑ "Editorial Board". Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences . Springer Science+Business Media. ISSN   1867-1462. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2019. THE EDITORIAL BOARD - CHAIRMAN: Luc Montagnier, World Foundation AIDS Research and Prevention, France
  14. ↑ Myers, P. Z. (24 January 2011). "It almost makes me disbelieve that HIV causes AIDS!". Pharyngula . ScienceBlogs LLC. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  15. ↑ Nadis, Steve (1998). "French scientist shrugs off winning his second Ig Nobel prize". Nature . 395 (6702): 535. Bibcode:1998Natur.395..535N. doi: 10.1038/26831 . PMID   9783571.
  16. ↑ Ball, Philip (10 July 2013). "DNA waves don't wash". Chemistry World . Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  17. ↑ "Program: 60th Meeting of Nobel Laureates (3rd interdisciplinary)". Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. 28 June 2010. Archived from the original on 17 December 2010.
  18. 1 2 Leake, Jonathan (4 July 2010). "Nobel laureate gives hope of credibility to homeopaths". The Sunday Times . Retrieved 9 June 2019.
    "Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost". The Australian . 5 July 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2019– via The Sunday Times.
  19. ↑ Enserink, Martin (2010). "French Nobelist Escapes 'Intellectual Terror' to Pursue Radical Ideas in China". Science . 330 (6012): 1732. Bibcode:2010Sci...330.1732E. doi:10.1126/science.330.6012.1732. PMID   21205644.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.