Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation

HJED writes "TechWorld is reporting that the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008, Luc Montagnier, is claiming that DNA can send 'electromagnetic imprints' of itself into distant cells and fluids which can then be used by enzymes to create copies of the original DNA. This would be equivalent to quantum teleportation. You can read the original paper here [PDF]."

Cough, cough...

[mesri]

To put it simply, this is BS, on all levels. The summary is just wrong, teleportation doesn't even appear in the article on arXiv. But then the arXiv article is ridiculous. It's a thinly veiled attempt to play with homeopathy: "high dilutions", "mechanical agitation between each dilution", and low frequency EM taking the place of "concussing", "water nanostructures" formed on the DNA which can be used to recreate the DNA sequence? And the paper is totally amateur hour. In summary: It's BS.

WTF?

[Animats]

That's an interesting claim. Most of the DNA molecules would somehow have to be in sync to get audio-frequency waveforms out. How's that supposed to happen?

I can't speak for the physics, but the experimental setup seems bogus. See Fig. 1. They have a coil with a test tube inside it. The coil is connected to an audio amplifier and then to the audio input on a laptop, where some frequency analysis takes place. They claim that a solution of DNA in water emits signals which can be read by that setup.

A setup like that is enormously sensitive to any electric or magnetic fields in the vicinity, mechanical vibration, and even mechanical motion of conductive objects, like fan blades. Like most low-level RF experiments, something like that has to be conducted in a electrically and mechanically quiet area. (RF engineers use either RF-shielded rooms or wooden boxes/sheds in open fields.)

The history of "polywater" [wikipedia.org] is relevant here. There, it was for a while thought that water could somehow polymerize and change properties. It turned out to be a contamination problem. Here, the authors talk about previously unknown "nanostructures" in water.

Re:Misleading title? Say it ain't so!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not DNA, but it has been shown that Chlorophyll implements a type of superconducting behavior using quantum coherence.
See: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100510151356.htm

Re:umm

[IICV]

It's called the Nobel Disease [scienceblogs.com]. The Nobel Prize is one of the highest prizes awarded in science, so it seems like some scientists think that once they have it, the only way to top their previous work is to escape the confines of reality entirely.

It doesn't turn out well, most of the time.

Re:umm

[Ruie]

I am a physicist, and there is more nonsense:

1) Ultra Low Frequency Electromagnetic Waves (ULF 5003000 Hz) were detected in certain dilutions of ltrates (100 nm, 20 nm) from cultures of micro-organisms (virus, bacteria) or from the plasma of humans infected with the same agents (Fig. 2). Same results are obtained from their extracted DNA.

2) The electromagnetic signals (EMS) are not linearly correlated with the initial number of bacterial cells before their ltration. In one experiment the EMS were similar in a suspension of E. coli cells varying from 109 down to 10. It is an all or none phenomenon.

• His coil is too small to pick up "ULF waves", rather it picks up magnetic fields varying at audio frequencies. There are plenty of natural and artificial sources that produce these and making a sensitive measurement is tricky.
• Filed strength is independent of the number of potential emitters - clear signature that they are measuring instrumental noise.

Re:Simplified

[Skreems]

Really? The explanation I guessed is pretty simple: "We spilled some bacteria in tube 2."

I think you missed the part where not having DNA in tube 1, not having the coil, not having the coil powered up, etc. all yielded negative results. Unless they just happened to spill bacteria on all 12 out of 12 positive trials, and spill none on the dozens of negative control trials, which is relatively improbable.

Re:Oh, now I see!

[dgatwood]

Actually, I thought there either will or won't be cats in Hell, and that the existence of said cats will not in fact occur or fail to occur until you observe Hell. On the other hand, one could argue the same for the existence or lack of existence of Hell itself, which is a rather interesting twist. Perhaps Heaven and Hell are some sort of quantum states, the superposition of which the universe exists in simultaneously. Or perhaps I should just stop posting random thoughts late at night.

What is expected is found.

[jklovanc]

I would have more faith in this experiment if the genetic testing of the "receiving tubes" was done by a person other than the one who ran the experiments on them. Maybe he found what he was looking for because he expected it to be found.