Pseudoscientific fluff

Attitudes and opinions change gradually as we get older. I don’t normally subscribe to the “left wing/right wing” model of politics and attitudes – I think there are a multitude of nuanced politics and views which make the right/left redundant. I am, however, getting much less tolerant as I get older.

When I was an undergraduate and young graduate I had quite a “live and let live” attitude to people with different ethics and attitudes to me. I could see both sides of the argument and let people who, say, docked tails to get on with it so long as they didn’t come near me or try to affect me in any way.

I had the same views on “alternative” medicine, and for the most part I still do. Indeed I can see the attraction of some parts of it, and don’t blame people for getting wooed by the woo.

Apart from homeopathy.

By homeopathy I mean the use of serially diluted solutions to treat disease and body states. The belief that “like treats like” I simply cannot understand the logic for. Nor can I understand the belief in diluting a substance to make its effect more powerful. Somehow beating it against a leather pad or saddle apparently instils a “memory effect” in the water molecules, despite no memory effect ever being noted in subatomic physics. Up to this point I am prepared to dismiss it all as “woo” – pseudoscientific fluff which can carry even scientists who are weak in a subject (physics, maths) along.

But it is when we get down to the maths where things take a more sinister turn. Some dilutions are quoted as 200C (i.e. 1 in 10²⁰⁰). It is frequently quoted that there are an estimated 10⁸⁰ atoms in the observable universe, which clearly makes a 200C dilution impossible, and even a 10⁴⁰ dilution as questionable (could there even be a molecule of the drug/toxin/whatever in there?).

All vets and doctors must cover maths or physics to get in to undergraduate studies, usually obtaining either an A or a B grade in the UK. You cannot get through the course without being adept with numbers.

Water having a “memory” effect, and impossible dilutions peddled by people who, it has been established by their exam grades, know better…

…could this actually be fraud?