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Organic silica: An essential element
Silica is the second most abundant mineral on our planet; the Earth’s crust is 27.8 percent silica by weight. It is all around us in granite, rocks, clay and sand. We peer through it every time we look out a window or drive a car. The Swiss have watches made out of it. Professors peer at their students through discs of silica, surrounded by metal frames.
By Ingri Cassel
Every mineral has certain properties that allow our bodies to function properly. Without minerals we cannot survive. They are not only the building blocks of our planet but are also the building blocks of our bodies.
Silica is an essential mineral whose importance has been ignored by most doctors and nutritionists. It was originally thought that silica is at worst an environmental contaminant of the human body and at best an element which quickly passes through the body and is excreted. These ideas were based almost entirely upon observations of mineral silica, which in the form of dust and particles was responsible for a number of serious illnesses such as silicosis.
Understanding silica
Silica, in mineral form, had been used therapeutically, but it was absorbed inefficiently into the human body. Herbalists have known for centuries that beneficial silica is present in horsetail fern and some vegetables.
Experience and research with absorbable organic silica since the 1930s has shown irrefutably that organic silica could be described as an essential nutrient for both humans and other animals.
In studies during the 1970s, it was found that silica supplementation aided bone and cartilage growth.
In 1993, it was reported that treatment with silica could stimulate bone formation. By the 1990s, silica formulations were being used by some pharmaceutical companies on wound and burn dressings because it was recognized that silica healed wounds more quickly and could stabilize burns.
The glue holding us together
We are born with an abundance of silica and relatively low amounts of calcium. As we age, the amount of calcium increases and the amount of silica decreases within the body. Silica enhances the function of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and boron, and is essential for bone development and growth. It is necessary for bones to re-calcify and aids in strengthening bone tissue. A silica deficiency causes a calcium deficiency which, in turn, results in a loss of tissue elasticity.
Silica is also one of the most important constituents of the body’s connective tissue, including cartilage, vascular lining, tendons, and ligaments. It is found in the thymus gland, adrenal glands, liver, spleen, pancreas and in considerable quantity in hair. It functions as a cross-linking agent, providing strength, flexibility and resilience to collagen and elastin connective tissues. Silica is known to play a part in the integrity of the bones, arterial walls, skin, teeth, gums, hair and nails and has been used to alleviate eczema and psoriasis. Recently, research has focused on determining the role of silica in rheumatic disorders and arterial disease.
Silica has been used to prevent osteoporosis, strengthen the musculoskeletal system, prevent injuries and accelerate the healing of fractures. This is due to silica’s role in forming and repairing connective tissue. It also contributes to the buildup of minerals in our musculoskeletal system during development. Silica is present in osteoblasts (bone forming cells) responsible for the mineralization of the osteoid (bone-forming) matrix. Silica is also an essential component of collagen, the "glue" that holds our bodies together. While vitamin C, or ascorbates, serve as a catalyst in the formation of collagen, silica forms the structural part of collagen.
Circulatory benefits
The presence of silica is vital for the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system, decreasing the risk of coronary problems. It has been shown to be abundant (up to 14 times more) in the arteries of people who are free of heart disease. It is essential in maintaining the structural integrity, elasticity and permeability of the arteries, thereby regulating blood pressure.
Silica and aluminum
There is a relationship between silica and the rate of aluminum concentration in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Much research points to the fact that a deficiency of silica in one’s diet causes an increase of aluminum retained in one’s body—and its ultimate accumulation in areas of the brain. Silica plays an important role in helping the body to eliminate these accumulations of aluminum, which are a causative factor in certain forms of senility, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Structural integrity
Research shows that skeletal diseases such as osteomalacia (soft bones) and osteoporosis (porous bones and/or spontaneous fractures, as well as shrinkage) are caused by a calcium deficiency, but do not respond to calcium therapy alone.
Research conducted by noted biophysicists Louis Kervran (Paris, France) and by Dr. Richard Barmakian (United States) shows that fractured bones did not heal at all when high amounts of calcium were present. They heal fair to poorly when moderate amounts of calcium were present. However, they heal extremely well when relatively low amounts of calcium were present with an abundance of silica. When it comes to bone demineralization, a silica deficiency has been shown to be a precursor to calcium deficiency.
Antidote to accelerated aging
Maintaining a healthy level of silica may retard the aging process. The average adult body requires the maintenance of about 20 grams of silica to promote good health. However, the body metabolizes and secretes about 10-40 mg. of silica per day through urination, hair loss and nail trimming. Thus, the body’s natural level of silica declines with age causing signs of aging such as bone loss, dry and wrinkled skin, weakened teeth and gums, and hair loss to occur.
Conclusion
Given the importance of an organic form of silica in our diet, it is clear that silica remains the missing element in many dietary and therapeutic programs of today.
The above article was adapted from Robert and Kerrie Broe’s excellent website at http://tuberose.com
A Tribute to Loic le Ribault
(April 18, 1947 – June 7, 2007)
There are a few scientists who have advanced the study of orthomolecular nutrition and Loic le Ribault is certainly among them. His discovery of the process of developing a high potency form of organic silica could potentially revolutionize the treatment of wounds, psoriasis, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, and a myriad of ailments plaguing mankind today. Organic silica happens to be one mineral that most people are deficient in and our ability to assimilate the optimum daily amount not only diminishes with age but is nearly impossible to obtain solely from plant sources. His discovery and subsequent successful study of thousands of "patients" throughout Europe with OS5, his patented form of high-potency organic silica, must not be forgotten even though he will likely never be mentioned in our "corporate-controlled" history books.
Loic le Ribault, who had a doctorate in geology, was France’s most renowned forensic scientist. While in his 20s, several of his groundbreaking research articles were published by the French Academy of Science.
History of a grain of sand
In 1971, Le Ribault discovered a unique function for the electron scanning microscope (ESM), enabling him to discern the entire history of a grain of sand—where and when it originated, how it was formed, where and how it had been transported, where it had next lodged and how long it had stayed in that place.
By the time he had finished his research, he had devised a list of 250 criteria by which the history of sand might be diagnosed. The field was later to become so specialized that it would take three years to train a scientist in the technical knowledge necessary to interpret the data from these tests.
While in the process of understanding more about the silica coating on grains of sand, he wrote his first book, The History of a Grain of Sand. When Le Ribault was first approached by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to test three sand samples, he was able to tell them the exact location in the world from which each had been collected, such as identifying one as coming from Beirut, Lebanon in the vicinity of an explosion.
In 1972, while working with sand on the ESM he made an interesting discovery: A layer of water-soluble amorphous silica which contained micro-organisms covered the surface of some sand grains. When looking through the ESM at certain grains of sand with 10,000x magnification, the image looks something like a flower blooming (see photo in silica story above).
What this mineral flower represents is secondary crystallizations that develop on quartz crystals under specific conditions. Certain grains of sand acquire these deposits from the combined actions of micro-organisms that break down the sand and the diverse environmental conditions in which the granule finds itself. The end result is a form of silica that contains more carbon and hydrogen thus making it organic in nature.
The importance of this discovery may not seem significant to some, but to others, especially those who are interested in leading a healthier lifestyle, its importance rings loud and clear. Organic silica differs from mineral silica in that it contains carbon and can be readily assimilated by animals, making his discovery important for its potential therapeutic applications.
Though our bodies are made out of minerals, they do not readily assimilate minerals found in rocks and soil. Our bodies require minerals that are organic by nature; minerals that micro-organisms or plant life have converted into organic, bioavailable forms. The only foods known to contain reasonable amounts of silica are some vegetables, bamboo, the husks of seeds, and horsetail herb. But the main problem is that the amount of silica in these foods is simply not enough to support our body's daily requirements for silica, which increases as we age.
Harvesting organic silica
By 1975, Le Ribault had created a process by which it was possible to recover these deposits from the surface of the sand. All of this work was accepted by the scientific establishment and his papers were published by the French Academy of Science. Although much research had been conducted on the possible therapeutic applications of organic silica since the 1930s, Le Ribault had not been following this research as he continued perfecting the process of extracting organic silica deposits from grains of sand.
But, in the early 80s, while working on the organic silica deposits, he immersed his hands in an organic silica solution and found that his psoriasis had disappeared. From then on, Le Ribault’s work became focused on the therapeutic properties of silica.
Adventures in microscopy
After le Ribault discovered his silica "blooms," he continued on with his career of microscopic adventures until he found himself at the head of the world’s forensic experts. In 1982 he set up his own laboratory known as CARME which became the main laboratory used by the French police, judiciary and the French Home Office for solving crimes. He would go to the scene of the crime, take samples, go back to his laboratory CARME and investigate what had occurred.
Through amazing skill and keen observation, the mystery as to what happened would be revealed, often leading to solving the case. For many years he performed incredible feats of detective work, acting as though he was a veritable Sherlock Holmes only with a much more powerful magnifying glass.
Blacklisted
Unfortunately, as a result of his work on organic silica, the same agencies that Le Ribault had worked with turned against him, funneling to the media false information. In 1985, Le Ribault published a famous comprehensive text entitled "Microanalysis and Criminology," which was distributed to all the Gendarmeries (police force) in France. Several years later, text from this publication was later reviewed and some "interesting" modifications were discovered. Important references to CARME were missing, his method for marking invisible objects was no longer mentioned as patented and his name was completely omitted from his own report. After these unfortunate events, CARME was not able to stay open for more than a few more years due to lack of clients.
Although this was hard for Le Ribault to handle, he was a resilient fellow. Thankfully, during the years CARME had been in operation, he had been engaged in research with a highly acclaimed research chemist, Professor Norbert Duffaut from the University of Bordeaux who had synthesized an organo-silicon molecule. Between them, they hoped to develop an easy to ingest form of organic silica and to apply it therapeutically to patients who they believed could benefit from its application.
Success. He stabilized it in salicylic-acid and it proved to be an effective therapy. Duffaut treated numerous patients and stated having success with joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, skin ailments and other health conditions.
Le Ribault and Duffaut worked together for many years, treating patients for free out of their own houses. In 1985, they secured an international patent for their organic silica formulation which they called G4. Word soon spread about their successes with G4 and articles were published about their discovery in newspapers and popular magazines.
Persecution. In November 1993, after 12 years of working together, and perhaps as a consequence of their work on the new therapy, Duffaut was dead, poisoned in suspicious circumstances and Le Ribault himself had suffered two months solitary confinement in a French jail. The primary charge? Practicing medicine without a license.
Le Ribault had always justified his lack of a license for both himself and his reformulatedproduct, G5, saying G5 was a natural, non-toxic substance that was more of a tonic or dietary supplement.
Vindication. Then, in October, 1995, an investigative article written by Jean-Michel Graille appeared in the magazine, Sud-Ouest Dimanche, outlining most of the case studies done by Le Ribault and Duffaut, including pictures and testimonials from satisfied patients. The response was overwhelming.
In the three months following the article’s publication, Le Ribault did his best to treat thousands of people who converged on the area needing help. The backlash from the pharmaceutical and medical professions was swift. Apparently, local pharmacists lost 35 percent of their business during this tidal wave of patients seeking help from Ribault’s new formulation, G5.
The rest of Le Ribault’s story takes a turn for the worst after his G5 gained so much notoriety. He had been appealing to several pharmaceutical laboratories about the importance of G5, encouraging them to produce it. After 15 years there was no reply except from one pharmaceutical executive who was willing to give him $1 million USD in exchange for his patents. The man wanted to put an end to G5, which he stated "is showing to be too effective."
Exile
Although Le Ribault denied the offer, several charlatans began capitalizing on the popularity of G5, and imitation and frequently dangerous products flooded the market, leading to his arrest. After spending several months in prison, he ended up fleeing France through Belgium and then onto England where he settled on Jersey, the southernmost of the Channel Islands—about as close to France as one can be without being there. He spent a few years in Jersey, making a significant impact on the health of its residents.
A couple of his Jersey cases
Le Ribault began administering his treatment, now called OS5, to hundreds of people and although a few found it to be ineffective for certain conditions, in the main, his clients were extremely satisfied. Most of those who were treated knew of Le Ribault’s deeper problems and some of them, infected by the fear which surrounds such cases, did not want to share their stories publicly. However, there were many more who stood by him in his efforts to provide OS5 to more and more people.
Maria. Thirty-six year old athlete Maria de Jesus had lived in Jersey since 1982. In 2004, she began training to run 150 miles across the Sahara desert in the Marathon des Sables, but nearly broke her ankle when her foot caught in a hole. With only five weeks to go before the marathon, hospital doctors gave her crutches and told her she would definitely not be fit for the race. She became increasingly convinced of this, when after a week and a half of concentrated physiotherapy, she was no better.
A friend suggested that she visit Le Ribault and made an appointment for her."My friend rang him at eight o’clock in the evening and he said come over. I told him about my ankle, he looked at it and told me that I would be able to do the race. I did not believe him and was very skeptical. I had to drink a spoonful as well as putting a poultice on my foot. I was quite frightened but I was willing to do anything in order to go on the race."
After taking OS5 for a few days, Maria felt more energetic and began jogging. A week later, her ankle had completely recovered. Three weeks later, Maria set off for Morocco where she ran the grueling, 150 mile race across the desert.
Frank. Frank Amy is a tough, level headed, skeptical working-class man, who has had a crumbling spine for the last 18 years. Amy, who had been on strong pharmaceutical pain killers for eight years, was sleeping only two to five hours a night because of discomfort and pain but what really upset him was his inability to bend enough to tie his shoe laces. After his first meeting with Le Ribault in November 1997, Amy began treating himself with OS5.
Feeling that it was important "to be fair to the process" Amy stopped taking his expensive pain killers. Within two weeks of taking the treatment he was feeling and sleeping better; some nights he slept for eight hours. Within a month he could bend down to tie his shoe laces.
Amy took OS5 for 10 weeks. Seven months after this trial period, he still felt good and was almost able to touch his toes without the slightest pain. Apart from the continuing problem of a crumbling spine and occasional painful twinges which he puts down to sensitive nerves, he considers himself symtom-free.
Paul
Paul Leverdier was a 40-year-old pool technician for the Jersey General Hospital, a carefully spoken triathlete who works with patients in the hospital pool.
In early 1998 he was suffering from chronic Achilles tendonitis, a painful tightening and jamming of the Achilles tendon often caused by overtraining. After six months without relief, a physiotherapist colleague at the hospital tried to treat the condition with ultra sound and frictions (a massaging of the tendon).
After another six months, the problem had been going on for so long that Leverdier began to think that he would reluctantly have to take long-term rest. After Laverdier was introduced to Le Ribault, he taped OS5 to the back of his ankle and left it overnight. Previously, when he went running, the pain on starting to run and speeding up had been crippling.
The morning after he treated himself, there was no pain and, when he had finished, the tendon was not jammed up with heavy mucus as it had been in the past.
Leverdier continued with using OS5 for two more consecutive nights, applying it to both tendons. Five months later, Laverdier’s tendonitis was completely gone and he turned in triatholon times he would have been proud of five years earlier.
Loic Le Ribault’s legacy
He successfully worked with more than 100,000 people with something as simple as an organic mineral. Le Ribault described his organic silica as a very important substance that proved its importance time after time. He stated that, "it has the capacity to penetrate the outer and inner layers of the skin to be diffused throughout the body, reaching areas that have been damaged, or are suffering from pain. It a anti-inflammatory processes and strengthens the immune defenses of the organism. It plays a major role in supporting collagen formation, bone mineralization and body metabolism in general. With age, the amount of organic silica present in the body dwindles irreversibly, since the human system is incapable of transforming the mineral silica ingested from food and drink into organic silica."
It is fairly self-evident the monumental importance of Le Ribault’s discoveries and their applications. Because of them, Le Ribault was known wherever he went. People he had never met, upon hearing his name would come over and introduce themselves and thank him for everything he had done for them or a family member. Many times it was these people that helped Le Ribault out when he was in desperate need.
Due to the fact that Loic Le Ribault had passed on in June of this year, we felt it was important that he not only be remembered but never forgotten for the important contributions he made to the science of orthomolecular nutrition and to humanity as a compassionate practitioner.
For more information on Le Ribault’s "living silica," contact
Products for Nature,
22906 Mooney St., Suite 12,
Farmington MI 48336;
(248) 473-4453,
Biological Transmutations
Louis Kervran, & c., from Adept Alchemy by Robert A. Nelson
Long before the discovery of "cold fusion" by Pons and Fleischman, other scientists had variously found phenomenal evidence of non-radioactive, low-energy transmutation of light elements in plant, animals and minerals. These reactions have come to be known as "biological transmutations" or "nuclido-biological reactions". This class of nuclear reactions is of great importance to the progress of human knowledge in the fields of physics, cosmology, biology, geology, ecology, medicine, nutrition and agriculture. The exact mechanisms of biological transmutations remain unknown, though a few theories have been proposed to explain them. Biological transmutations exist and cannot be denied; they are the very core of living nature, which could not function without them.
The study of biological transmutation can be said to have begun in the 17th century with the famous experiment by von Helmont, who grew a willow tree in a clay vase with 200 pounds of soil. After 5 years, he dried the soil and found that its weight had decreased by only 2 ounces: "Water alone had, therefore, been sufficient to produce 160 pounds of wood, bark and roots" (plus fallen leaves which he did not weigh). Presumably, there were some minerals in the water he fed to the tree. Nowadays we know that plants form carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide, but their mineral content is derived from soil, not air. It may be possible, however, that the ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monoatomic Elements), discovered by David Hudson in the 1980s, exist in the atmosphere and are utilized by plants.
In 1799, the French chemist Vauquelin became intrigued by the quantity of lime which hens excrete every day. He isolated a hen and fed it a pound of oats which were analyzed for lime (CaO). Vauquelin analyzed the eggs and feces and found five times more Ca was excreted than was consumed. He concluded that lime had been created, but could not figure out how it happened.
In 1822, the English physiologist Prout studied the increase of calcium carbonate inside incubating chicken eggs, and was able to show that it was not contributed by the shell.
In 1831, Choubard germinated watercress seeds in clean glass vessels and showed that the sprouts contained minerals which did not previously exist in the seeds.
In 1844, Vogel also found evidence of biological transmutation. J.J. Berzelius reported the experiment in his Treatise on Mineral, Plant and Animal Chemistry (1849):
He sprouted seeds of cress... in crushed glass deprived of sulfate or of any other sulfurous compound; he watered them with distilled water, covered them with a glass cloche and analyzed the air of the room, so as to determine the sulfur... A few months later, the adult plants with ripe seeds, were dried and burnt with a mixture of potassium nitrate and potassium carbonate; the result was that a quantity of sulfuric acid double that which was contained in the seeds was produced. These experiments demonstrate that either sulfur is not a simple element or that the source which produced the sulfur has remained unknown, despite all the care which had been taken to discover it...(1)
Circa 1850, Lauwes and Gilbert observed an inexplicable variation in the amount of magnesium in the ashes of plants.
From 1875-1883, von Herzeele conducted 500 analyses which verified an increase in weight in the ashes of plants grown without soil in a controlled medium. He concluded that, "Plants are capable of effecting the transmutation of elements". His publications so outraged the scientific community of the time, they were removed from libraries. His writings were lost for more than 50 years until a collection was found in Berlin by Dr. Hauscka, who subsequently published von Herzeele's findings.
M. Baranger (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris) became intrigued with Von Herzeele's experiments, but he thought that the number of trials had been too limited and the precautions against error were insufficient. Baranger decided to repeat the experiments with all possible precautions and a very large number of cases which would allow a statistical study. His research project lasted four years and involved thousands of analyses. Baranger verified the content of P, K, and Ca of vetch seeds before and after germination in twice-distilled water to which pure calcium chloride was/was not added. Hundreds of lots of 7-10 grams each were selected, weighed to 1/100th milligram, and graded, then germinated in a controlled environment. The plants were tested by the methods described by A. Brunel-Tourcoin in his Practical Treatise of Plant Chemistry (1948). Baranger found a significant decrease in P in the Ca-series of tests. Non-germinated seeds and seeds germinated in the distilled water showed no significant change in their levels of K. Those seeds treated with CaCl2 showed a 10% increase in their K content.
None of the specialists who examined Baranger's work were able to find any experimental errors. Baranger concluded:
These results, obtained by taking all possible precautions, confirm the general conclusions proposed by V. Herzeele and lead one to think that under certain conditions the plants are capable of forming elements which did not exist before in the external environment.
The practical consequences] cannot be underestimated... Certain plants would bring to the soil some elements useful for the growth of other plants; this would lead us especially to define and revise the current notions on fallows, rotations, mixed crop, fertilizers and the manuring of infertile soils. Nothing prevents us from thinking that certain plants are capable of producing rare elements of industrial importance....
In the sub-atomic field, the plant supplies us with an example of transformation which we are not capable of performing in the laboratory without bringing into action particles of high-energy... It seems that the theoretical consequences in the field of sub-atomic physics are not negligible.
In 1946, Henri Spindler, (Director of the Laboratoire Maritime de Dinard) investigated the origin of iodine in seaweed, and found that the algae Laminaria manufactured iodine out of water which contained none of the element.(15)
Prof. Perrault (Paris University) found that the hormone aldosterone provoked a transmutation of Na to K, which could be fatal to a patient; heart failure occurs when blood plasma K reaches approximately 350 mg/liter.
In 1959, Dr. Julien (Univ. of Besancon) proved that if tenches are put in water containing 14% NaCl, their production of KCl increases 36% within 4 hours.(5)
Louis Kervran (Univ. of Paris) was the most ardent researcher of biological transmutation, and his work in the field earned him a nomination for the Nobel Prize. Kervran elucidated several of these nuclear reactions and verified them:
The vital phenomenon is not of a chemical order... The nucleus of the atom in light elements is quite different from what nuclear physics regards as the average type, the latter having value only for the heavy elements... Nature moves particles from one nucleus to another ¾ particles such as hydrogen and oxygen nuclei and, in some cases, the nuclei of carbon and lithium. There is thus a transmutation... Biological transmutation is a phenomenon completely different from the atomic fissions or fusions of physics... it reveals a property of matter not seen prior to this work. (4, 7-13)
Kervran found that in nuclido-biological reactions, oxygen is always in the form of O, never O2; reactions with nitrogen occur only with N2, insofar as is known. The following reactions (shown in simplistic form) have been observed:
Na23 + H1 ® Mg24Na23 + O16 ® K39Na23 - O16® Li7
Na23 ® Li7 + O16K39 + H1 ® Ca40Mg24 + Li7 ® P31
Mg24 + O16 ® Ca40F19 + O16 ® Cl35C12 + Li7 ® F19
Cl35 ® C12 + Na23Fe56 - H1 ® Mn552 O16 - H1 ® P31
O16 + O16 ® S322 N14 ® C12 + O16N14 + Mg12 ® K19
Si28 + C12 ® Ca40Si28 + C12 ® Ca40P31 + H1 « S32
Costa de Beauregard (Research Director, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) learned of Kervran's work in 1962 and began to correspond and meet with him. He offered the following observations and explanation for the processes:
All transmutations proposed by Kervran have two traits in common: (1) The initial and final nuclei differ by the addition or subtraction of a piece of matter, e.g., a proton (a hydrogen nucleus...), an alpha particle (a helium nucleus), a nucleus of oxygen or one of its isotopes, or perhaps some other familiar nuclei; (2) There is an energy excess or deficit in the order of 0.01 atomic mass units (a.m.u.)... or 20 electron masses, or 10 MeV, or 1.6 x 10-12 joules. The mass equivalent of this energy gap is of course needed in order to have the Lavoisier principle safe... This energy gap is very much larger than those occurring in chemical reactions. For example, if ... hens are indeed transmuting potassium into calcium (which is an exo-energetic reaction), the power they are radiating is so huge that it would, if in the luminous (electromagnetic) form, set everything on fire all around! [In energetic terms, such flux would be equal to 1015 MeV/cm2/second, or 160 watts/cm2.] Can we then imagine some sort of quasi-occult form into which the 'Kervran power gap' may be radiated (or from which it may be absorbed in the case of endo-energetic reactions)? No reasonable answer was available until... a bold theoretical assumption, due to Weinberg in 1967, turned out as experimentally true. Due to this 'neutral current hypothesis' we are allowed to write such nuclear reactions as:
p + v « p' + v' ; or: p + v « p' + v' ; or: p « p' + v + v
where p denotes a proton, v a neutrino, and v the anti-neutrino. We even have two sorts of neutrinos to play with: the electronic and the muonic one.
With this we can in principle handle the proton type of Kervran's reactions (and also the other one in analogous fashion. One of the two protons in the reaction would be a quasi-free one, that is one with only the trivial, chemical binding. The other one would be bound inside the nucleus. Of course we then have the problem of getting the proton, with its electric charge, through the potential barrier of the nucleus, by the so-called 'tunnel effect' (a typical effect of wave mechanics). But this is part of a problem already mentioned: Life playing the information game, the field being the nucleus, and the rules being those of the wavelike probability calculus... If the Kervran hen does radiate the power gap in the form of neutrinos and/or anti-neutrino, this will be done in the quietest fashion, and go on completely unnoticed.
Can we also handle in this way the endo-energetic reactions? Fortunately Nature provides us with an appropriate supply, because there are quite a few neutrinos and anti-neutrinos flying around us as part of the so-called cosmic rays. By another chance the upper limit of the energy per cosmic particle is so high that the 0.01 a.m.u. Kervran needs are very easily available.
Finally, like the proton or the a -particle, the neutrino or anti-neutrino is something abundantly available... which makes it convenient for use by Life.
On the other hand, the extremely 'weak interaction' of the neutrino with other particles, which we have just found so convenient for avoiding the adverse effects of the Kervran power gap, now... faces us with great hostility. For how are we to reconcile this with the hypothesis that the hen is a furious neutrino source...? How can we simultaneously explain that the poultry keeper, and indeed the hen itself, do not feel the neutrino Niagara and that the source of it is inside the egg factory of the hen?
This is the very Gordian knot of the information game problem, the nuclear physics analogon, if you like, of the so-called catalysis problem of ordinary bio-chemistry. The only tentative answer that I can think of, one I deem quite acceptable in principle, is that what looks like a flat self-contradiction in the physical realm of 'blind statistical prediction', retarded waves and causality, is no more a contradiction at all if we assume that Life is playing with finality, advanced waves, and 'blind statistical retrodiction'... Life knows how to... induce probability decreasing processes. (2)
Kervran commented on that opinion in an unpublished manuscript:
For Costa de Beauregard, the apparent discordance with the postulate of the equivalence between mass and energy can be replaced by the postulate of emission-absorption of an occult mass bound to a particle of complete spin; it is thus that the neutrino with a 1/2 spin was invented... you would need a particle of complete spin with normally very weak interactions with matter, but 'catalyzed' biologically; it would not displease me, within this perspective, to try the classic 'graviton' with spins 2 or 0, or a non-classical neo-graviton with spins 2, 1, and 0...
Simply put, if an occult particle is emitted or absorbed in Kervran-type reactions, the conservation of angular momentum would require that it have a complete spin.
In letters to de Beauregard (20 January and 17 October 1873), Kervran noted:
This particle seems to have a mass of 0.011 a.m.u. or 1.8 x 10-26 gram in reactions with +H+...
I had not been speaking of energy, for here it was a question of an equivalence, not an identity... I prefer to hold to the notion, as measured at the mass spectrometer, of a difference of masses, for the problem of energy, in my reactions, can be written only in a very simplistic way by application to Einstein's law. There is certainly something else here, and therein lies the whole problem.
De Beauregard later noted:
In the terrestrial atmosphere there exists a particle in abundance with a rest mass m, and a maupertusien mass (or kinetic mass)... which is more than sufficient to assure the Kervran balances: the mu meson of cosmic rays...
It is quite admissible to conceive of it as absorbed, then, re-emitted during the course of a nuclear transition of the Kervran type which, moreover, implies a 'virtual neutrino' (emitted, then reabsorbed).
He also offered the logical possibility of a reaction with iN + 1H + nu = pN + nu'. In a letter of 31 December 1973, de Beauregard wrote:
There is a second important problem to solve. To get the H to fuse with the N there is an enormous barrier of repulsing electric potential to pass through. Evidently this is by the tunnel effect. The theory which I am working up ... thus unites aspects of the theory of beta disintegration... and the theory of alpha disintegration... Like you, I believe that the configuration of an atomic or molecular electron cloud has a real word to say on the subject.
In his response (7 January 1974), Kervran attributed the transmutations in plants in part to the power of enzymes:
In a Petri dish 9 cm. in diameter I started germinating 50 oat seeds. The culture continued for 6 weeks or 3.6 million seconds give or take a few ten thousands of seconds... The area of 'cosmic interaction' was 63 cm3... During this time on this surface 3.9 mg of K were transmuted into Ca; this must be ~ 6 x 1019 atoms of K transmuted in 3.6 x 106 seconds or 1.8 x 1013 atoms per second or 2.6 x 1011 per cm2/second. The proportion of K transmuted was ~ 46% in 6 weeks. This integration of results for the phenomenon is not constant: it is imperceptible during the first days when one witnesses the synthesis of enzymes which will provoke the transmutations; even at the end of a week the effect is hardly to be noticed. It develops rapidly during the 2nd and 3rd weeks, then slows down during the 4th week... The phenomenon seems to be asymptotic and at the end of the 6th week transmutation progresses only very slowly.. Which demonstrates yet once again that the action of the ambient is insufficient, that there is an energy regulated by the metabolism of the germination and growth which is at the origin of these transmutations... Obviously this calculation was one for a macro-section and not for the effective section... Moreover, there is in biology an important phenomenon which must not be overlooked: some molecules assemble in helix shapes (DNA and RNA for example). There are also some oriented assemblages which polarize light, most often to the left. These oriented constructions have an oriented electromagnetic field, and a molecule such as DNA can be compared to a solenoid in which charged particles (mu- for example) are somehow partly channeled in the interior, and thus concentrated...
De Beauregard made a suggestion:
The microorganisms responsible for the phenomenon would find in the natural radiation a sufficient store of neutrinos of 10 MeV and more than they need... A diminution of this alimentation would consist of an equal numerical flux of neutrinos of very low energy to be put in the free interstices of the natural distribution. It is a problem of the symmetric information... in which (in thermodynamic terms) the difference between the 'heat' gained from the hot source (high energy neutrinos) and that given to the cold source (low energy neutrinos) is converted not into work, but into internal energy, or into the rest mass of the machine, which is not cyclical... Analogous comments apply to the case... implying an absorption of a pair, neutrino and anti-neutrino, of an average energy of 5 MeV... [The reactions] avail themselves of an abundant hot source like a geyser (the neutrinos of average energy of the cosmic radiation within the atmosphere) and of an immense cold source like an ocean, 'Fermi's lake' of very low energy neutrinos.
Kervran also proposed a revolutionary theory about the genesis of coal and oil:
Coal comes from schists, fabricated in situ, by high compression that produced the reactions: Si ® C + O. If O could not escape, and was compressed as well, one would have O + O ® S, from which one gets sulfurous coals. If there was no deformation, the coal remains mixed with argil to produce ampelite.
The presence of carbon in metamorphic and silicate rocks, formed long before there was any vegetation on Earth, is a clear demontration:
Graphite cannot be of vegetal origin, in which case another origin must be found for it, and I propose the silicium of these Archaean rocks. As for diamonds... here, too, one observes the presence of silicates, thus of silicon... In this way one can explain why all coal deposits contain silicon (up to 20%, or even 40%, and more) which form 'ashes'. The great amounts of silicon might be an indication that the transmutation from Si to C + O was imperfect, incomplete.
Kervran claimed that petroleum was not formed from flesh or plants, but from the reaction Mg ® C + C at great depth. If water is present, the hydrogen combines with carbon, and the oxygen forms sulfur (O + O ® S), giving sulfurous oil. The Mg can come from a pocket of saline water when Na + H ® Mg. Otherwise, Mg also can come from Ca or from adjacent layers of dolomitic rock. Oil deposits in the Sahara have been found in pre-Carboniferous rocks (Devonian and Cambrian-Ordovician) and in dolomite. Usually there is no communication between layers of petroleum deposits of different composition which are widely separated by hundreds of meters of impermeable rock. Kervran concluded:
The whole problem of prospection should be thought out all over again.
In 1965, H. Komaki (Prof. of applied microbiology, Mukogawa Univ., Japan), published the results of his research, and suggested the probable occurrence of a nuclear reaction in the cells of Aspergillus niger, Penicillium chrys., Saccromyces cerv., and Torula utilis grown in potassium-deficient medium. His experiments revealed that P can be formed through the pathway: N + O in some two dozen strains of microorganisms cultured in P-deficient medium. (14)
In 1971, the Laboratory of the French Society of Agriculture sprouted rye seeds under controlled conditions, with these results:
Total Input in Seeds & Water | Output | Difference
Mg :13.34 mg3.20-10.14(-335%)
K :7.3616.67+9.31(+133%)
In 1971, J.E. Zundel studied the utilization of Ca by germinating grains and observed 54-616% augmentation of Ca. In another experiment, he grew 150 grains of oats in a controlled environment for 6 weeks. 1243 sprouts were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for Mg and Ca. Potassium was analyzed by flame emission. The K was deficient by 0.033%, the Ca was 0.032% in excess, and Mg was 0.007% deficient. The variation of Mg was not significant, but the decrease in K equaled the increase of Ca. The increase in Ca was far greater than the margin of experimental error. (16)
In February 1977, Prof. J.A. Jungerman (Univ. of California, Davis) reported the results of an experiment with 4 growths of oat seedlings under carefully controlled conditions. Random samples of germinated seeds were analyzed by atomic absorption and X-ray fluorescence for Ca and K. He found no evidence of transmutation.
In 1978, Carolyn E. Damon (U.S. Customs Tech. Service Div.) ran tests for biological transmutation with Aspergillus terreus and Rhizopus nigricans, with negative results.
In 1978, Solomon Goldfein (U.S. Army Material Tech. Lab, Ft. Belvoir) studied the biological transmutation of 39K + 1H ® 40Ca. His analysis of thousands of references led him to conclude that the most promising approach to testing the theory of biological transmutation would involve an organic molecule with a central metal atom: the chelate Magnesium Adenosine Triphosphate (Mg-ATP). Goldfein postulated a conformational structure of a stack of Mg-ATP molecules forming a helical chain. The Mg-ATP chelate produces oscillating electrical currents which act as a micromini-cyclotron that accelerates hydrogen ions to relativistic speeds with sufficient potential to transmute an element to the next higher number. (3)
Research into the phenomenon of biological transmutation continues in obscurity, practically unknown to most scientists. It is to be hoped that the subject will become established as a popular, legitimate field of research which will yield rich harvests of knowledge.
References
1. Berzelius, J.J.: Treatise on Mineral, Plant & Animal Chemistry (1849, Paris)
2. de Beauregard, Costa: Is Kervran a False or True Prophet?; unpublished manuscript, 1963.
3. Goldfein, Solomon: MERADCOM Report 2247 (May 1978)
4. Jeuneman, Frederick R.: Industrial Research/Development (December 1977), p. 11; ibid., (May 1978), p. 202; ibid., (November 1978), p. 15.
5. Julien: Annales Scientifiques de l'Universite de Besancon, Series 2 (1959)
6. Jungerman, J.A.: Letter to L. Kervran (11 February 1977)
7. Kervran, C. Louis: Natural Non-Radioactive Transmutations: A New Property of Matter; 1963, Librairie Maloine, Paris.
8. Kervran, C. L.: Preuves Relatives a l'Existence de Transmutations Biologiques; 1968, Libraire Maloine
9. Kervran, C. L.: Transmutations Biologiques: Metabolismes Aberrants de l'Azote, le Potassium et le Magnesium; 1963, Libraire Maloine
10. Kervran. C. L.: Transmutations a Faible Energie; 1964, Libraire Maloine
11. Kervran, C. L.: Transmutations Naturelles, Non-Radioctives; 1963, Libraire Maloine
12. Kervran, C. L.: Biological Transmutations; 1972, Swan Publ. Co., NY; Michel Abehsera, translator.
13. Kervran, C. L.: La Revue Generale des Sciences, Paris (July 1960).
14. Komaki, H.: Revue de Pathologie Comparee et de Medicine Experimentale (Sept. 1965)
15. Spindler, Henri: Bull. Lab. Maritime Dinard (15 June 1948); ibid., (December 1946)
16. Zundel, J.E.: Comptes Rendu Acad. D'Agriculture de France 58: 288-293 (1972)
Also see http://www.kervran-info.de/ and http://www.levity.com/alchemy/nelson_contents.html
For eight years, from 1875 to 1883, a German biologist named Albrecht von Herzeele conducted several hundred experiments in his Berlin laboratory which so outraged the scientific community that his books were removed from libraries and his writings banned.
The subject that so outraged his colleagues is today a taboo question that can scarcely be mentioned in polite scientific circles. It is the apparently innocent question: where do the minerals in plants come from? Von Herzeele grew plants without soil, using solutions whose mineral content he measured and controlled. Like scientists before him in England, France and Germany he found that there were elements in the ashes of the plants he grew that could not have got in from the growth medium. He concluded that 'plants are capable of effecting the transmutation of elements.'
Professional oblivion inevitably followed and it was not until the 1940s that open-minded biologists rediscovered von Herzeele's work and tried to replicate it. M. Baranger at the Ecole Polytechnic, Paris, decided to repeat von Herzeele's experiments but with tighter controls and greater precautions against error. He also performed a much larger number of experiments. His study lasted four years and involved thousands of analyses. Baranger measured the phosphor, potassium and calcium content of vetch seeds before and after germination in twice-distilled water. In some cases pure calcium chloride was added.
Baranger found that, in the case of seeds germinated using added calcium chloride, they experienced a 10 per cent increase in their potassium content and a significant decrease in their phosphor content. He concluded, 'These results, obtained by taking all possible precautions, confirm the general conclusions proposed by V. Herzeele and lead one to think that under certain conditions the plants are capable of forming elements which did not exist before in the external environment.'
Subsequent experiments at some of the world's leading institutions have confirmed these general findings. In 1946, the director of the Dinard Maritime Laboratory, Henri Spindler, investigated seaweed and found that the algae Laminaria manufactured iodine out of water which did not contain this element.
In 1959, Dr Julien at the University of Besancon found that if he placed tenches into water containing 14 per cent sodium chloride, their production of potassium chloride increased by 36 per cent within four hours. And in 1965, H. Komaki, professor of applied microbiology at Mukogawa University, Japan, reported the formation of phosphorous in a wide range of microorganisms grown in a medium deficient in Phosphorous. Komaki suggested that nuclear reactions were taking place in the cells of the microorganisms.
The best-known modern researcher of biological transmutation is Louis Kervran at the University of Paris. Kervran has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work in this field. He has elucidated many of the nuclear reactions involved and sought to explain them. 'The vital phenomenon is not of a chemical order,' he says. 'The nucleus of the atom in light elements is quite different from what nuclear physics regards as the average type, the latter having value only for heavy elements... Nature moves particles from one nucleus to another -- particles such as hydrogen and oxygen nuclei and, in some cases, the nuclei of carbon and lithium.'
'Biological transmutation,' says Kervran, 'is a phenomenon completely different from the atomic fission or fusion of physics.' Stimulated by Kervran's results, other laboratories have conducted experiments, many obtaining similar results.
In 1971 The labs of the French Society of Agriculture tried germinating rye seeds. They found that the initial input of 13.3 milligrams of magnesium dropped as low as 3.2 milligrams (a fall of 335 per cent) while the initial input of 7.3 milligrams of potassium rose to 16.6 milligrams (an increase of 133 per cent). It is fair to add that scientists at other institutions have attempted to replicate these results and have found no evidence of transmutation (for instance professor Jungermann at University of California in 1977 and Carolyn Damon of the US Customs in 1978).
In 1978 Solomon Goldfein of the US Army's Material Laboratory at Fort Belvoir suggested a possible mechanism for biological transmutations. He suggests that such transmutations would most likely involve an organic molecule with a central metal atom: Magnesium Adenosine Triphosphate (or Mg-ATP).
Goldfein says that a stack of these molecule could form a helical chain. The Mg-ATP could also produce oscillating electric currents which act as a microminiature cyclotron, accelerating hydrogen ions to speeds near that of light and giving them enough potential to transmute an element to the next higher number in the table of elements.
Most remarkable of all, of course, is the thought that, if nuclear fusion is taking place in plants, microbes and fish, then it is certainly also taking place in our own bodies.