Editing Water memory (section)

{{Short description|Refuted theory behind homeopathic remedies}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
'''Water memory''' is the purported ability of [[water]] to retain a memory of substances previously [[Solvation|dissolved]] in it even after an arbitrary number of [[serial dilutions]]. It has been claimed to be a mechanism by which [[Homeopathy|homeopathic remedies]] work, even when they are diluted to the point that no molecule of the original substance remains, but there is no theory for it.

Water memory is pseudoscientific in nature; it contradicts the scientific understanding of [[physical chemistry]] and is generally not accepted by the [[scientific community]]. In 1988, [[Jacques Benveniste]] and colleagues published a study supporting a water memory effect amid [[Benveniste affair|controversy]] in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'',<ref name="benveniste" /> accompanied by an editorial by ''Nature{{'}}s'' editor [[John Maddox]]<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1038/334287a0|title="High-dilution" experiments a delusion|year=1988|last1=Maddox|first1=John|last2=Randi|first2=James|last3=Stewart|first3=Walter W.|journal=Nature|volume=334|issue=6180|pages=287–290|pmid=2455869|bibcode=1988Natur.334..287M|s2cid=9579433}}</ref> urging readers to "suspend judgement" until the results could be replicated. In the years after publication, multiple supervised experiments were made by Benveniste's team, the [[United States Department of Defense]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/integrative-medicine-invades-the-u-s-military-part-three/ |title=Integrative Medicine Invades the U.S. Military: Part Three |last=Bellamy |first=Jann |date=2013-08-08 |website=[[Science-Based Medicine]] |access-date=2017-10-01}}</ref> [[BBC Horizon|BBC's ''Horizon'']] programme,<ref name="bbc"/> and other researchers, but no one has ever reproduced Benveniste's results under [[scientific control|controlled]] conditions.