Thought this may be of interest to some...

http://www.pcworld.com/a...nner_says.html?tk=hp_new

At this point the most critical step was undertaken, namely to investigate the specificity
of the induced water nanostructures by recreating from them the DNA sequence. For this
all the ingredients to synthesize the DNA by polymerase chain reaction (nucleotides, primers,
polymerase) were added to the tube of signalized water. The amplification was performed under
classical conditions (35 cycles) in a thermocycler. The DNA produced was then submitted
to electrophoresis in an agarose gel. The result was that a DNA band of the expected size
of the original LTR fragment was detected.


Emphasis mine, if I'm reading that correctly they didn't prove anything. It sounds like they just did a PCR reaction in the tube.

I'll be interested in seeing what the materials and methods section looks like and if it is reproducible by other scientists. Will be cool if it is.

Yeah I think there might some overhyping going on here, but it will be interesting for other scientists to look at this independently.

This may be of interest to you http://en.wikipedia.org/...rtual_particles_in_vacua

A student of my old school ended up attending MIT then coming back to visit. He mentioned how in a vacuum particles 'pop' or 'jump' in and out past a barrier. They were actually popping in and out of this space and into another. He also mentioned that this supports a theory of teleportation but we're obviously far off.

fwiu, to teleport, molecules must de-materialize, then re-materialize elsewhere.
observing the laws of thermodynamics, this is, in practice, impossible.

ill have to get my tao of physics book out again but is it not the case that particular subatomic particles can 'leap' places they should not.
Quantum tunneling?

I did infact buy New Scientist magazine for this article, the general vibe was as unlikely as it is, they are encouraging others to repeat the experiment.

I guess we shall see if its bunk or not.

perhaps they do
but DNA is not comprised solely of subatomic particles, nor are other molecular systems or even elemental atoms.

energy/matter is neither created nor destroyed.
fin.

We do a lot of work with DNA and PCR amplification techniques at work. Most likely this was a trace amount of contamination floating through the air that landed in the water....seriously.

PCR can amplify extremely minute amounts of DNA. For us it shows up as a contamination that mimics a prior experiment.

Just a guess.

Sorry Benzyme, i didn't mean to imply that that molecules do that. Just pulling similar items out my memory.
So how does something like this make it into a publication like New Scientist if its so bunk?

Is it completely out of the question that matter may behave in a quantum like manner? Thus appearing or disappearing from view?
Perhaps we haven't given it the correct conditions to do so yet while being able to witness it?

I personally am not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to repeat the experiment, nor fully understand how DNA/RNA works.
So my opinion is only so valid.

What is the nature of this story?
Is it merely wild fantasy of a Nobel prize winner and thus attracting attention because of his previous work?
I don't get how something so apparently bunk gets such huge hype.

Being a scientist in training myself, cold hard logic dictates that there must be a simpler and more rational explanations for these findings. I guess it just catches my attention that it's a Nobel prize winner that is stating these findings, although this area of science is not my area of expertise by any means.

good guess. did they say anything about analyzing the sequences?

my guess is that this experiment will not be replicated (or will, and it's shown that contam is the origin), and it gets tossed with all the other bunk theories.

hard science... serious s#it.