Research to be announced today (Friday 5 September) will shed new light on a worldwide scientific controversy and an area of medical research shunned by scientists.

The findings, being announced at the Orkney International Science Festival, may prove that a leading scientist has been seriously wronged, and open a whole new field of scientific research.

The results are expected to support the idea that water has a form of memory.

Festival Director Howie Firth explains: "The research seems to confirm that water can hold electromagnetic 'signatures' of substances that have been dissolved in it - and retain these patterns even after the substances have been removed by dilution."

This theory was mooted 15 years ago by one of France's leading allergy researchers, Dr Jacques Benveniste. He found evidence that substances in tiny dilutions could still have a biological effect, suggesting water had some kind of memory.

"This provided support for homoeopathy," said Mr Firth, "which involves the application of highly-diluted substances as medicines.

"It's an area attracting growing interest from doctors and patients, but it's had very little scientific investigation.

"The scientific journal Nature took an American stage magician to visit his laboratory, as a condition of publishing his work."

But with attacks from the journal and individuals, the scientific community turned against his findings and Dr Benveniste lost his funding and his reputation.

"As a result the whole field has become a no-go area for scientists - to the extent that when the Medical Research Council some years ago made funding available for research into the effectiveness of homeopathy, nobody would take up the money," Mr Firth added.

MORE

New findings shed light on science and medical controversy - continued

The experiments that support Dr Benveniste's work have been carried out by a leading Slovenian biologist, Professor Igor Jerman, of the Bion Institute in Ljubljana, who will present his work at one of a series of scientific presentations in Kirkwall.

Dr Benveniste will also be present at the festival today to give the keynote Grimond Lecture - called, appropriately "The Freedom to Investigate".

Funding by the UHI Millennium Institute has enabled this year's festival to attract a record number of speakers from abroad and a second Slovenian scientist, Dr Robert Leskovar, will unveil the results of experiments on a new type of energy field around living beings, while theories backing his experiments will be unveiled by Andrej Detela, a Slovenian physicist.

Present for the occasion will be Nobel prizewinning physicist, Professor Brian Josephson, of Cambridge University, who has voiced concern about the pressure on researchers to keep away from radical and unorthodox areas of investigation.

Mr Firth said the issue was a major cause for concern.

"New work which challenges established ideas ought not to be rejected out of hand as heresy, but discussed, evaluated and then carefully tested.

"And the public, who ultimately finance scientific research, are entitled to be given the opportunity to make up their own mind about new ideas."

More details of the lectures are available at the Festival website: www.oisf.org.uk

END

Notes to Editors:

1. The Orkney International Science Festival began on 28 August and ends on Friday 5 September.
2. Dr Jacques Benveniste gives the Grimond Lecture at 10am on Friday 5 September at the Pickaquoy Cinema, Kirkwall.
3. Professor Igor Jerman, Dr Robert Leskovar and Andrej Detela will present their findings at 11.30am, 2pm and 3,30pm respectively, also at the Pickaquoy Cinema.

For more information contact:
Robert McAllister, Platform PR on 01224 488091 or 07900 917145
Wendy Park, Information Officer, UHI, Tel: 01463 279222