I will let you discover the digital biology presented by Jacques Benveniste, who died in December 2004. The next article will comment this text.

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Explaining digital biology is impossible without explaining its principle. The purpose of this text is not to report experimental results. Rather, it tries to explain to laymen, in the simplest terms, this radically new approach to biology. We hope it will be useful to all, scientists or not, who find it hard to "make the leap". Indeed, is it possible to believe that the specific activity of biologically-active molecules (e.g. histamine, caffeine, nicotine, adrenalin), not to mention the immunological signature of a virus or bacterium can be recorded and digitized using a computer sound card, just like an ordinary sound? Imagine the perplexity of Archimedes confronted with a telephone, and being told that by using it he could be heard on the other side of the world, were we not to explain the nature of sound waves or their translation into electromagnetism.

Life depends on signals exchanged among molecules. For example, when you get angry, adrenalin "tells" its receptor, and it alone (as a faithful molecule, it talks to no other) to make your heart beat faster, to contract superficial blood vessels, etc.. In biology, the words "molecular signal" are used very often. Yet, if you ask even the most eminent biologists what the physical nature of this signal is, they seem not even to understand the question, and stare at you wide-eyed. In fact, they've cooked up a rigorously Cartesian physics all their own, as far removed as possible from the realities of contemporary physics, according to which simple contact (Descarte's laws of impact, quickly disproved by Huygens) between two coalescent structures creates energy, thus constituting an exchange of information. For many years, I believed and recited this catechism without realizing its absurdity, just as mankind did not realize the absurdity of the belief that the sun circles the earth.

The truth, based on facts, is very simple. It does not require any "collapse of the physical or chemical worlds." That molecules vibrate, we have known for decades. Every atom of every molecule and every intermolecular bond-the bridge that links the atoms-emits a group of specific frequencies. Specific frequencies of simple or complex molecules are detected at distances of billions of light-years, thanks to radio-telescopes. Biophysicists describe these frequencies as an essential physical characteristic of matter, but biologists do not consider that electromagnetic waves can play a role in molecular functions themselves. We cannot find the words "frequency" or "signal" (in the physical sense of the term) in any treatise on molecular interactions in biology, not to speak of the term "electromagnetic," use of which would be - at least in France - a cause for excommunication of any offending biologist by the scientific Papal Office...

Like Archimedes, I would have liked to have had a brilliant idea in my bathtub: "Eureka, the vibrations of molecules don't exist for them to dance the salsa at a Saturday night ball; vibrations are the tools of their trade, which allow them to send instructions to the next molecule down the line in the cascade of events which govern biological functions, and probably, to a large extent, chemical ones as well." Unfortunately, this was not the case. I followed a purely experimental approach. After eight years of research, around 1991, my experiments showed that we could transfer specific molecular signals by using an amplifier and electromagnetic coils. In July, 1995, I recorded and replayed these signals using a multimedia computer. A computer sound card only records frequencies up to about 20,000 Hz. In the course of several thousand experiments, we have led receptors (specific to simple or complex molecules) to "believe" that they are in the presence of their favorite molecules by playing the recorded frequencies of those molecules. In order to arrive at this result, two operations are necessary: 1) record the activity of the substance on a computer; 2) "replay" it to a biological system. sensitive to the same substance. Therefore, there is every reason to think that when a molecule itself is in the presence of its receptor, it does the same thing: it emits frequencies which the receptor is capable of recognizing.

Which means that a molecular signal can be efficiently represented by a spectrum of frequencies between 20Hz and 20,000 Hz, the same range as the human hearing or music. For several hundred thousand years, human beings have been relating sound frequencies to a biological mechanism: the emotions. Composers of background music for supermarkets or elevators are practicing neuropsychology without knowing it. High-pitched rapid sounds engender lightness of spirit, high-pitched slow sounds, sweetness, sounds both deep and rapid awaken the fighting spirit, while deep, slow sounds invoke serious emotions, sadness and mourning. These are fundamentally cerebral physico-chemical phenomena, triggered by defined frequencies. We do nothing more than this when we transmit pre-recorded molecular activities to biological systems.

Therefore, one may hypothesize that biological systems function like radio sets, by coresonance. If you tune a receiver to 92.6 MHz, you tune in Radio-This, because the receiver and the transmitter vibrate at the same frequency. If we change the setting a little to, say, 92.7, we no longer receive Radio-This, but Radio-That instead.

These advances in understanding the inmost mechanism of molecular recognition and signaling do not overturn the science of biology, and even less those of physics and chemistry. We have taken nothing away from classic descriptions, but only taken a step forward by adding to the present body of knowledge. This is the normal course of scientific progress, and there is no reason for it to provoke imprecations and anathema.

The electromagnetic nature of the molecular signal sheds light on many shadowy areas of biology. We can now understand how millions of biological molecules can communicate (at the speed of light), each with its own corresponding molecule, and it alone, the basic requirement for the functioning of biological systems...and why minute chemical modifications produce considerable functional consequences, something "structural" biologists are at a loss to explain. In deciding that only structures can have an action, biologists find themselves in a pre-Newtonian world where the movement of celestial bodies is described by Ptolemy in terms of epicycles. Hence the inability of contemporary biology to provide answers to the major pathologies of the end of this century (my article in Le Monde, May 22, 1996, which has not been challenged to date). The passage from the rigid biology of structures to one of information traveling at the speed of light can be accomplished without a "revolution." Contrary to what is stupidly claimed by scientific gossips, recording the activity of molecules no more implies denying their existence (after all, molecule-specific electromagnetic messages must come from specific molecules) than it does denying the law of mass action, according to which the effect is directly proportional to the number of molecules. One might as well expect a singer to disappear by recording his voice! In other words, we eliminate neither the light-switch nor the light bulb; we only say that a wire with a current of electrons connects the two. We are not in another, electromagnetic world which we are substituting for the old molecular world. We capture, copy, transfer-and soon will modify-electromagnetic signals emitted by molecules in the course of their normal functioning.

What about water in all this? It is the vehicle for information. This cannot be avoided, since there are 10,000 water molecules in the human body for every molecule of protein. There is no problem with this either; a submarine communicates with its base via low-frequency electromagnetic waves, not with megahertz frequencies, which do not penetrate water. We have recently completed very simple experiments showing that a molecule at a normally active concentration does not work in a medium devoid of water. Adding water is not enough to restore activity; it must be "informed." In other words, when molecules trigger a biological effect, they are not directly transmitting the signal. The final job is done by perimolecular water which relays and possibly amplifies the signal. Sound is not directly created by a compact disc. The latter carries data which is audible only after being amplified by an electronic system.

The "memory of water?" It is more mysterious, but no more so than the fact that a compound formed from two gases should be liquid at normal temperature and pressure, and dilate as it cools. Coherent domains with laser-like properties have been described in water (E. del Giudice, G. Preparata, G. Vitiello (1988) 'Water as a free electric dipole laser', Phys. Rev. Lett. 61:1085-1088). More recently, a unique type of stable (non-melting) ice crystal that maintains an electrical field has been identified and characterized in water. Truly, unemployment should not be a worry for physicists! Nonetheless, water is not our subject of investigation. What interests us is not the nature of the magnetic medium and how it functions, but the message recorded in it, which can be copied and transmitted. In the light of our experimental results, we are confident in our belief that we have elucidated the physical nature of the molecular signal. The principle is as simple as exploding a mixture of air and gasoline, but the consequences are enormous.

We present them in detail elsewhere. Here is a summary:

At the present time, the only way to identify a molecule is to carry a sample, most often obtained invasively or even destructively, to a laboratory. With the digital method, we dispose of a signal which can be instantly transmitted and analyzed at the other end of the world by classic means of telecommunication. Using this method, the detection of toxic substances, proteins (antigens, antibodies, prions) or molecular complexes (parasites, bacteria, viruses, abnormal cells) should become possible without physical sampling. It is noteworthy that no in vivo detection methods of prions presently exists, with well-known epidemiological and economic consequences. The detection of antigens and antibodies, just to mention this field, represents a considerable share of the activity of clinical biology laboratoires. Moreover, some results seem to indicate that these methods should be applicable to the chemical industry and to environmental surveillance, e.g. to detecting, at a distance, micro-organisms or products from genetically modified plants.

A final question: why are scientists so opposed to the evolution of science? Is it to defend their piece of turf? Why, in the name of intangible dogmas, which the history of science has shown to be so often ephemeral, do they reject advances which represent progress for their discipline? Do these advances appear to threaten their all-too-fragile certitudes? Such questions are not just philosophical, because these people are respected counselors, advisers to political and industrial decision-makers. They orient-most often by hampering-new applications flowing from scientific progress. I don't know where these mental blocks come from, but they are, in theory at least, irreconcilable with a scientist's function. Here is a quote (translated from the French edition of Encyclopedia Universalis, taken from the article on Mechanism) which shows, alas, that those blocks are eternal:

Four centuries later, we hear the same words: "there must be molecules" (François Jacob)-that is, contact, forceful impulsion-according to our sages of science, still frozen in the Cartesian mechanistic dogma: the same denial of action at a distance, and the same accusations of a return to obscurantism.

Descartes versus Newton. We're in good company...

January 8, 1998; mod. June 14, 1998

J. Benveniste

We suggested that health is a perfect balance of :

-         physical health,

-         energies (from Oriental medicine) that likes physical and mental parts,

-         mental,

-         emotions caused by our social lives (family, friends, work, etc.).

To reach this perfect level of life, the number of solutions or tools is so huge that it’s quite impossible to give an exhaustive list. Future articles will focus on most of them. Nevertheless, we can define main therapy families:

Homoeopathy, even contentious, go all across this table because it’s supposed to treat different parts of our lives, playing with dilutions. It would be very trivial to say that the ideal therapy would be a mix of all these ones.  Does it really exist? I don’t think so. Even homoeopathy, that looks the most complete therapy, can’t substitute a surgical act.

We thus have to manage with these tools and try to do our best. Hospitals start integrating homoeopathy and yoga closed to traditional healing process. The philosophy is to create more interactions with the patient that should fully take part of his own recovery.

Patient becomes the principal actor of his therapy, therapist is just a guide for a certain period to reach health.

We can reach an infinite number of therapies. Occidental medicine proposes as many specialities as of body sites, senses and psychic disorders. Alternative medicines offer as many therapies as individuals: personal development, acupuncture, massage, magnetism, channelling, reiki, etc. Each one, more or less seriously, promise to keep or find health.

And what is health, exactly?

On the website of French Ministry of Health, you won’t find any definition of health. How strange. It promises to give you something that gets no definition.

According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and does not consist only of one absence of disease or infirmity. (Constitution of the World Health Organization, such as adopted by the international Conference on Health, New York, June 19-22, 1946; signed on July 22, 1946 by the representatives of 61 States).

If we understand this definition in a strict way, who can say "I am in perfect health"? Almost nobody. Thus, we all have disorders. Happy to learn it...

Let’s have a look at oriental medicine. More subjective than Western medicine, its philosophy consists in reaching for energy balance: Yin and Yang for Chinese medicine, balance of 3 somatic energies (the bile, mucus and wind) for Tibetan medicine. These concepts may look strange for the uninitiated ones, because quite far from our Cartesian concepts. The main problem is that no scientific tools can measure those energy effects yet and thus, make it hard to demonstrate any significant effect. Moreover, depending on the therapist relevance and on the relation between therapist and patient, the success of these Eastern techniques is more uncertain than Western medicine. Nevertheless, considering how long those techniques have been in existence and their growing worldwide success, their philosophy strikes a chord to a lot of human beings, even scientifically misunderstood or denied. 

It’s quite “amazing” seeing that clinicians often die from a disease related to their own speciality: cardiac problem for cardiologists, cerebral degeneration or strokes for neurologists, cancer for the cancer specialists, etc. I don’t know any study that had focussed any attention to this but, in any case, this is an observation that is quite admitted in hospitals. Strange...

On the other hand, it is not rare to hear that spiritual guides suffer from this disease, or this other one. However recognized for their deep knowledge of the world and the relevance of their remarks, that does not prevent from any physical disease.

Being a “master” of physical body or of spirit / soul / energies does not prevent from anything. So, what is health? Perhaps, we have a wrong point of view.

It appears that all our lives consist in reaching a new health state which can be a mix between physical, mental and social well-being. For mental one, we can introduce various types of energies indexed by Eastern medicines. We all had experiences or tests in our lives which make us evolve/ grow up. It builds our psychic and social health that also influences our physical health. Theoretical sciences tell us that the world is in constant evolution, nothing is fixed, everything always changes. Our body and our mental take part of this process. Many people say "thanks" to their disease, they discover a new of thinking, a new meaning to their life.

Health is nothing else but a goal to achieve. But the main goal of our lives is the process to get there, to understand something ... What ?