Feb 02 2010

6.022137 × 10^23

6.022137 × 10^23 – that’s Avogadro’s number. It’s the number of atoms or molecules of a substance in a number of grams of that substance equal to its atomic mass. So 1 gram of elemental hydrogen or 12 grams of carbon12 will have Avogadro’s number of atoms. This amount is also called a mole – so a mole of anything has Avogadro’s number of elementary particles – a mole of water has Avogadro’s number of water molecules.

Amedeo Avogadro first came up with the concept in 1811. In 1895 the number was first estimated by Josef Loschmidt, and when referring to the mass of an ideal gas is called the Loschmidt constant, but the number itself in 1909 was named in honor of Avogadro.

Samuel Hahnemann invented the principles of homeopathy (he “discovered” nothing, it turns out) in the 1790s and published his first article on the topic in 1796. So you see – Hahnemann could not have known about Avogadro’s number, in principle or in name, at least when he invented homeopathy. He died in 1843, long after the scientific community knew that his “law of infinitesimals” was rubbish.

Hahnemann claimed that the more a substance is diluted the more potent a medicine it becomes, in violation of the chemical law of mass action which dictated that chemical reactions proceed more quickly the more substrate there is. Hahnemann also advocated such extreme dilutions, still used by homeopathy today, that many of his potions vastly exceed the dilutional limit – the point beyond which there is likely not a single atom or molecule of substance remaining. That is where Avogadro comes in – there is a finite number of discrete particles of substance in a solution, and when you dilute it beyond all reason there is literally nothing left. Hahnemann missed Avogadro’s boat and spent the second half of his life denying the advances in science that rendered his fantasies nothing but nonsense.

Even more amazing is that homeopaths continue in Hahnemann’s delusion today, more than a century after Avogadro was honored for his insights.

To honor Avogadro further, and highlight the absurdity of homeopathy in the face of basic chemistry and physics, a UK group has started the 10^23 campaign. Their basic purpose is to protest continued support for homeopathy in the UK and elsewhere and to raise public awareness as to what homeopathy really is (nothing). They surmise (correctly, in my opinion) that the more people know about homeopathy the less popular it will be.

Their first major act was a mass public homeopathic suicide:

At 10:23am on January 30th, more than four hundred homeopathy sceptics nationwide took part in a mass homeopathic ‘overdose’ in protest at Boots’ continued endorsement and sale of homeopathic remedies, and to raise public awareness about the fact that homeopathic remedies have nothing in them.

Boots is a UK pharmacy chain who, in public testimony, essentially admitted that they know homeopathy is bunk but they sell it anyway because their customers want it. The homeopathic overdose was a stunt previously performed by James Randi. I think he was the first to do this, and was the inspiration for the stunt. It is a dramatic demonstration of the inactivity of homeopathic potions – take a massive “overdose” and suffer no ill effects. This is actually more than a stunt – it demonstrates the lack of a dose-response effect from homeopathic nostrums, which is convincing evidence that there is no effect.

One word of caution for anyone wishing to replicate this act – some commercial “homeopathic” products actually have active ingredients in them (they cheat). So read the label carefully before overdosing, there may be real medicine in there.

The event had great media coverage and put the 10^23 campaign on the map, and it is an excellent example of activist skepticism.

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40 responses so far

40 Responses to “6.022137 × 10^23”

  1. johncon 02 Feb 2010 at 9:16 am

    “One word of caution for anyone wishing to replicate this act – some commercial “homeopathic” products actually have active ingredients in them (they cheat). So read the label carefully before overdosing, there may be real medicine in there”

    Hows that for irony eh?

    The only thing that bothered me about this stunt is that the media reported that the protestors wanted boots to stop selling these remedies. I’m not sure that’s very constructive, and it suggests that they feel people’s minds need making up for them.

    It’s enough to bring attention to the fact that they’re being sold, and boots should only respond when they face lack of demand.

  2. SquirrelEliteon 02 Feb 2010 at 9:33 am

    One subtle distinction, but not unimportant.

    answers.com defines a mole as:

    “1.The amount of a substance that contains as many atoms, molecules, ions, or other elementary units as the number of atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12.”

    It’s been a few years, but this is a little closer to what I remember from my high school and college chemistry classes.

    The important point is that all molecules except for the noble gases (neon, argon, xenon, radon, etc.) have a variable number of atoms in one molecule.

    For instance, water has one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms in one molecule. So, a mole of water has 3 times Avagadro’s number of atoms in one Avagadro’s number of molecules.

    For a really complex molecule like DNA, this difference would be enormous.

    Just for my information, do you know approximately how many atoms are in one average human DNA molecule?

  3. Lenardon 02 Feb 2010 at 10:07 am

    Also, diabetics shouldn’t try to overdose on homeopathic remedies due to them (the remedies) being mostly composed of sugar!

  4. scribe999on 02 Feb 2010 at 10:15 am

    ‘The only thing that bothered me about this stunt is that the media reported that the protestors wanted boots to stop selling these remedies. I’m not sure that’s very constructive, and it suggests that they feel people’s minds need making up for them.’

    I disagree. Fake meds are dangerous as they preclude people from seeking actual science-based medicine to diagnose and treat them either early in an illness or even much later when the consequences are immediate. The protestors are using their own rights to speak freely and show how ridiculous, costly and ultimately harmful this form of magical thinking is. Boots is essentially the snake-oil salesman who’s been caught shilling products they know don’t work…they ought to do the right thing regardless of how some of their consumers may feel about it because as a national chain in the UK, they lend credence to the homeopathic claims merely by distributing them. Plus, in the UK, the NHS subsidizes some of the homeopathic remedies people purchase, so it’s a taxpayer issue as well I believe.

    Allowing the charlatan to continue just because people have bought into it would be similar to letting that monster, Jim McCormick, continue selling his worthless bomb dowsers to Iraq because the Iraqis swear they work. It’s not about making fun of the gullible, it’s about criticizing the con man.

  5. Draalon 02 Feb 2010 at 10:49 am

    @SquirrelElite
    There are nearly 3 billion base pairs in a human genome. Each base has between 26-28 atoms (A,T,G,C) and each base has a pair (i.e. 2). So in the genomee, there are about 3,000,000,000 base pairs * 2 for each pair * 27 atoms for each base = 162 billion atoms. A genome is made up of 24 chromosomes. The chromosomes vary in length (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/posters/chromosome/faqs.shtml).

    And to add to Squirrel’s minor corrections: 1 gram of “elemental” hydrogen 1H (one proton isotope) is one mole. Hydrogen naturally exists as a diatomic molecule with an average molecular mass of 1.0079 per atom.

  6. Steven Novellaon 02 Feb 2010 at 11:06 am

    Thanks for the clarifications – I will correct it to be more precise.

  7. Jerryon 02 Feb 2010 at 11:15 am

    The 10^23 campaign is saying that a respected chemist, selling real medicines, should not sell placebo pills in the same store.
    They’re not saying that homeopathy should not be sold in say nature stores. If people want to waste their money on it, that’s fine.
    Just not at Boots, because Boots gives an air of respectability to it.

  8. jacekon 02 Feb 2010 at 11:28 am

    I agree with JohnC. Boots is a for profit business. They have an obligation to their shareholders/owners to maximize profits.
    As long as they’re upfront about what they’re selling, and as long as the products aren’t illegal, I don’t think that they need to stop selling them. We need to target the demand, not the supply.
    If Boots were to stop selling these products, consumers who want them would simply go to a different store/internet site to purchase them.

    scribe999 – If the NHS is subsidizing homeopathy, then that’s something that concerned citizens should try to address/vote on/raise the awareness of, etc. Again, I don’t think that Boots should be in the business of refusing to sell government sanctioned ‘crap based medicine’.

  9. eeanon 02 Feb 2010 at 11:53 am

    Wal-Greens does sell nutritional supplements but not homeopathy. I’m sure some people take these supplements thinking they’ll solve some problem or the other (Wal-Greens even has a link to them under “Blood Pressure” and “Heart Health” http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Health-Shops/ID=350014&navCount=0&navAction=push-specialty?tab=health%20shops ), but overall the situation in Europe seems a lot worse.

    The Boots site has an extensive Complimentary Therapies section:
    http://www.boots.com/en/Pharmacy-Health/Complementary-Therapies/

    This is in line with my general impression from the pharmacies I’ve seen in Spain and the UK. In Spain sometimes you can’t tell if its pharmacy or an equivalent to a natural supplement store in the States. I’m not sure the distinction even really exists.

    So this is the context of these protests that’s important for those of us on the other side of the pond to remember. Stores like Boots should be called out for selling worthless products. It’s not any different from selling a lemon car. And perhaps we should do a better job finding such products at our pharmacies and calling them to task for it.

  10. eeanon 02 Feb 2010 at 11:59 am

    @jacek so in your opinion the only reason a company should be ethical is because the government tells them to be?

    They aren’t even calling for a boycott, they are just urging Boots to do what is right (and trying to shame them a bit).

  11. scribe999on 02 Feb 2010 at 12:04 pm

    jacek – How is it being “up front” about a product when they only admit it doesn’t work in front of a governmet inquiry? You can’t target the demand if legitimate businesses and government agencies continue to lend credibility to these BS claims. The packaging and the marketing all say that these items work…and I’m certain Boots doesn’t put up big red signs that say “Doesn’t Actually Work” in the aisles. That would be up front. How about ‘Sugar Pills for 5 pounds’? Truthful. Homeopaths might seek out woo websites and outlets, but the average consumer who wouldn’t spend much time thinking about these unsubstantiated claims would come across these items at Boots, and that demand you mentioned increases as people equate the legitimacy of the chain store with these sugar pills.

    Of course, Boots has every right to sell whatever is considered legal, but the purpose of the event was to bring about awareness to consumers that Homeopathy doesn’t work AND that Boots should do the right thing and not sell it.

    The position that johnc and yourself seems to be taking is that somehow it would be wrong if Boots DID change its business practice based on these protests, and that just doesn’t follow. If the people running Boots feels that they shouldn’t sell things that don’t work to their customers because it wouldn’t be right, then that would be Boots’ decision, even if it’s because skeptics helped change their minds…depriving the homeopathic consumer of their ability to purchase from Boots isn’t the consideration here. And profitability can be made up for in terms of positive long-term spin.

  12. mrwilson41on 02 Feb 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Perhaps we can ask for an additional label on the packages stating “for entertainment purposes only” like newspapers do for their horoscopes.

  13. ChrisZon 02 Feb 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Steve you fool! Overdosing on homeopathic medicine just dilutes it’s effectiveness, of course you don’t suffer any ill effects! If these skeptics were really brave they’d take a really, really, really small dose of homeopathic medicine because that would make it all the more powerful!

  14. Steven Novellaon 02 Feb 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Regarding regulation and corporate responsibility – pharmacies have the right to sell legal products. The question is, do they have a responsibility to stand behind their products?

    Boots is saying, they do not. They sell whatever worthless crap people will buy.

    A pharmacy can decide to have higher quality control in the products they sell than is demanded by government regulation. This might even be what is best for shareholders – short term loss for long term reputation and viability. It’s like a company advertising that it is “going green” – even if it costs them in the short term.

    On a separate point – I do think government should essentially abolish homeopathy. There is no inherent right to sell worthless products with misleading claims. There is essentially no legitimate market for homeopathy, and no way to market homeopathic products without being deceptive.

    Homeopathy is fraud. Governments have a duty to protect consumers from fraud.

    Looked at another way – there is no reason why homeopathic products should be exempt from the regulations that govern drugs – the burden of proof should be on sellers to prove their claims first.

  15. SteveNon 02 Feb 2010 at 12:30 pm

    This has almost certainly been pointed out by someone else sometime, but something occurred to me the other day that makes an even greater mockery (if that was needed) of the whole homeopathy scam. Advocates of homeopathy, in an attempt to get around the embarrassment of Avogadro’s number, usually claim that water molecules have a ‘memory’ of molecules they have come into contact with and it is this that gives the therapeutic effect.

    However, let’s look what happens with a 30C preparation of a homeopathic preparation: For the sake of argument, I will assume that the ‘active’ ingredient (substance X) has a molecular weight of 600 (most will have much higher MWs, but that only makes it worse for the homeopath’s case). If the homeopath takes 1 gram of substance X and adds it to 99 mls of water (a 1C dilution) there will be 10^21 molecules of substance X dissolved in 100 mls of the 1C preparation. The 2C preparation (one ml of 1C added to 99 mls of water) will have 10^19, the 3C preparation 10^17 and so on. The 11C preparation will have 10 molecules and the 12C preparation 0.1 (i.e no) molecules. Therefore, the only water molecules present in the 12C preparation that have had any chance of contact with substance X will be those transferred in the 1ml from the 11C preparation. 1 ml of water contains 3.35×10^22 molecules of water, which means that the 13C preparation will have 3.35×10^20 ‘memory’ water molecules, 14C has 3.35×10^18 and so on. By 24C, there will be not a single molecule of water remaining that had the chance to come into contact with even one molecule of substance X. By 30C, a very common homeopathic dilution, there will be a 1 in 3×10^13 chance that even a single water molecule ever came into contact with the active substance.

    I can only assume that homeopaths believe that water molecules can pass on their ‘memory’ to other water molecules. A whole new level of woo.

  16. ChrisHon 02 Feb 2010 at 12:39 pm

    I wonder if skeptics over here on the wacky wet coast where there are several colleges for naturapathic medicine that teach homeopathy could pull off a mass suicide stunt. Or even at actual medical schools that include those who research homeopathy (Dana Ullman is still pushing the Jennifer Jacob’s studies of children with diarrhea in Central America, and she is actually at a real university!).

    Or perhaps it would be more worthwhile to go to the main retailers like Whole Foods.

  17. mindmeon 02 Feb 2010 at 12:48 pm

    Check out the Righteous Indignation podcast (the UK’s SGU) for on going coverage of 10^23. This week has co-host Marsh taking on an Irish homeopath.

    http://www.ripodcast.co.uk

  18. JonFon 02 Feb 2010 at 1:16 pm

    To echo what ChrisZ said, if less is more, then more is less. And we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

    Really, though, I can see the responses from the woo-meisters now: “they didn’t overdose because it’s so safe! Much safer than those toxins from those Big Pharma shills! It’s natural!

    I feel like I need to take a shower now.

  19. jacekon 02 Feb 2010 at 1:18 pm

    scribe999 – I would be interested to know what % of people that buy homeopathic products at Boots specifically seek out homeopathy vs. just picking up something homeopathic because it happens to be in the isle next to stuff that may actually do something.

    Is anyone aware of any surveys or studies that address the question?

  20. delaneypaon 02 Feb 2010 at 1:33 pm

    My comment has nothing to do with homeopathy….”American Scientist” Feb 2007 (“An Exact Value for Avogadro’s Number”) had a very interesting article on Avogadro’s number. Apparently it a physical constant with a degree of arbitrariness, hence the discrepancy in various estimates. There is pressure in the physics/chemistry community to define it as a specific number, rather than treat it as something to be measured. This has been done to redefine a meter precisely (the distance it goes after 9,192,631,770 vibration of Cs-133).

    One candidate for Avogadro’s number is to picture a precise cube of carbon atoms arranged as a cubic crystal, containing 6.022137 × 10^23 atoms. Take cube root and round to near integer, you get 84,446,867 atoms on a side…or an exact Avogadro’s number of 6.0221369180008 × 10^23. My pocket calculator doesn’t give the 24 digits the new definition would offer.

    That is one proposal. I don’t know where things stand today among the authorities for these things.

  21. Calli Arcaleon 02 Feb 2010 at 1:38 pm

    eean:

    Wal-Greens does sell nutritional supplements but not homeopathy.

    I’m afraid that isn’t true. I shop at Walgreens fairly frequently (they seem to be the only pharmacy in my area which stocks my daughter’s prescription medicine in her dose) and I have definitely seen homeopathic products for sale — including the particularly fraudulent Zicam. They don’t have a “homeopathy” section, though. Instead, they put the homeopathic remedies in categories like “cold and cough” and “pain relief”. The only clue you’re looking at a homeopathic remedy at all is the little text in the corner of the box saying “homeopathic”. Nothing on Walgreen’s labeling acknowledges it.

  22. Calli Arcaleon 02 Feb 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Oh, I’ve also noticed one other place where they put the homeopathic bunk: by the checkout, usually with a lot of other dubious products as well as last-minute impulse items (magazines, candy bars, breathmints, small packages of batteries, random cheap crap).

  23. scribe999on 02 Feb 2010 at 2:19 pm

    Calli Arcale — like Head On, apply directly to forehead, *sigh*

    jacek — I wouldn’t know, and a cursory search didn’t bring up anything. In any case, it isn’t necessary to know. When Boots sells items they know have no efficacy and do not state so “up front”, and these items are sold alongside those items that are legitimate, then they are promoting fraud. If they have an aisle with homeopathic products labeled “Ineffective Placebos”, then that would be honest. What they’re doing may not be illegal, but it is ethically wrong…especially fueling idiotic statements like: “If these products don’t work beyond the placebo effect, why do people keep buying them?’ — Robert Wilson, chairman of the British Association of Homeopathic Manufacturers.

    So, I still don’t understand, why do you think it is wrong for a business to voluntarily do the right thing? Wendy’s got rid of trans fats at great cost. Apple improved its recycling program. What’s wrong with corporate responsibility?

  24. jacekon 02 Feb 2010 at 3:16 pm

    scribe999 – There’s nothing wrong with businesses doing the right thing. The question is cost.

    Green initiatives are a great example of this. There are places where win/win solutions are possible. For example, investing in fleet vehicles with a better fuel economy saves money and reduces green house gas emissions. Supporting those programs is a no brainer; the PR and goodwill generated by these initiatives is a nice bonus.

    I wonder what the financial impact would be if Boots actually stopped selling homeopathic products. I’m guessing that, sadly, there are many more homeopathy proponents than skeptics in the UK. Would the woowoo crowd boycott?
    I don’t think that Boots would be doing their duty if in ‘doing the right thing’ they ended up losing a lot of money. I’m not saying that this would be the case; I haven’t looked at the details enough. I just think that ‘doing the right thing’ is not the primary driver of for profit companies and we shouldn’t expect the management at these companies to stick their necks out over something like this.

    I’ve never been to a Boots store (I live in the US). If they have a homeopathy isle, then posting a ‘this is nothing but placebo’ disclaimer may be the most appropriate solution. That way, those already sold on woo can continue to waste their money, but those not yet indoctrinated can be warned away.

  25. CWon 02 Feb 2010 at 3:54 pm

    I think homeopathy believers look at two aspects: the dilution of the active ingredient and the process/features of the water that the ingredient is combined.

    For example, I’m ashamed to say that my mother believes in homeopathy. And while I tell her about the dilution of particles and all that, she’s more convinced that the effectiveness of the treatment is the way manufacturers “energize” the water.

    Whatever that means.

  26. scribe999on 02 Feb 2010 at 4:23 pm

    jacek– I’ve been in Boots (though I live in the U.S. as well). They’re the largest pharmacy in the UK, and after the merger (Alliance Boots) they likely can absorb the cost of removing these items from shelves considering the 101 million pound profit mid-year and 10 billion in revenues. “Big Placebo” is worth about 40 million pounds vs. the multi-billion pound Pharmaceutical industry.

    The NHS has been tracking the information and shows that fewer people are spending money on homeopathic prescriptions. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a6pYvy11scQU&refer=uk . According to the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, 1 in 5 Britons use some form of alt med, so hardly the majority of the population.

    The cost/benefit will work in their favor especially if the UK govt. inquiring into this ends up forcing them to do this which would prevent them from setting their own timelines and reviewing their practices over time to ameliorate cost.

    I’m not attacking the profit motive…that’s a straw man. They can easily take the hit now to profit later. Being that Boots is everywhere in Britain, people will continue to rely on that store regardless. If the govt. takes a hand they’re guaranteed to hurt a lot more. However, even if it would be too costly, then yes, of course they can choose the status quo . That still doesn’t mean the 10^23 protest is wrong to shame them…that was the initial argument anyway that ‘johnc’ way at the beginning of this thread for some reason was purporting, and what I was objecting to.

    There is no reason why they should not be shamed about this regardless of their profit position. That would be like saying it was wrong for the NY Times to shame Jim McCormick for profiting on his useless bomb dowsers….because he had a duty to his investors to keep selling perfectlly legal if ineffective products to gullible Iraqi soldiers.

    If Boots won’t voluntarily change, then there’s the recourse of the government stepping in to regulate, because frankly Dr. Novella is right. Homeopathy is fraudulent. Labeling something as “this is nothing but placebo” isn’t enough as the industry is so good at obfuscation and people don’t know what means. The store clearly still would be marketing on homeopathy’s behalf, continuing the “indoctrination” of new customers. This is a matter of public health, and either they should find a way to do the right thing, or be forced to change and take some losses.

  27. rmgwon 02 Feb 2010 at 6:19 pm

    Eean:

    I’m not sure about all of Spain, but here in Catalunya, there are Farmacias and Parafarmacias, the latter quite clearly only dealing in supplements, “health foods” and so forth. They do not dispense prescriptions. Many farmacias do sell homepathic nostrums, though.

  28. Yossarianon 02 Feb 2010 at 7:30 pm

    There was a mini version of this out here in NZ, and a short article on the news about it. Of course they had to have a response from the homeopaths… the two responses I heard were:

    1. The sceptics didn’t overdose because they didn’t take it in accordance with a homeopath’s unique instructions/guidance/prescription (or something like that)

    2. Homeopathy ‘definitely has some effect’, we’re just not sure what it is… [and then a comment that really made me howl] … ‘it’s electro magnetic’

    cheers

  29. eiskrystalon 03 Feb 2010 at 4:41 am

    scribe999 – I would be interested to know what % of people that buy homeopathic products at Boots specifically seek out homeopathy vs. just picking up something homeopathic because it happens to be in the isle next to stuff that may actually do something.

    I’ve nearly done it accidently. Its only because I checked the back carefully and knew what to look for.

    If you went into a shop and had bottles of dirty water mixed in with the bottles of milk but that said ‘milk’ on it would you complain?

  30. johncon 03 Feb 2010 at 7:54 am

    To those that talk nonsense about abolishing homeopathy. Do you seriously think that’s possible? Would you seriously want to add stigma to homeopathic practices and force them underground?

    Just educate people, let them work out the rest for themselves. There’s no need (and it’s not even possible) to go abolishing or banning anything. If boots want to sell expensive water to people, and they want to buy it, nobody even has the right to stand between them.

  31. SteveAon 03 Feb 2010 at 8:22 am

    # johnc “To those that talk nonsense about abolishing homeopathy. Do you seriously think that’s possible?”

    Yes.

    “Would you seriously want to add stigma to homeopathic practices and force them underground?”

    Yes and yes. Many, perhaps most, people, assume that ‘medicines’ are only allowed to be sold if they have been shown to work. In the same way that most people assume that only working inventions can be patented.

    In the meantime we need more campaigns to spread the word. For years I used the term ‘homeopathic’ as a catch-all phrase that included any ‘alternative’ medicine (herbal cures, acupuncture and the like). I was astonished when I read up on the subject and discovered the basis of homeopathic beliefs. I would guess that a significant proportion of the UK population (perhaps including the members of the Boots’ board of directors) take the same view.

    Homeopathy is like religion, the more you find out about it, the nuttier it becomes.

  32. johncon 03 Feb 2010 at 10:28 am

    SteveA,

    What about books about homeopathy?

    What about fast food, cigarettes etc? Things we know are dangerous?

    I’m wondering where you draw the line, or if you’ve even thought your way along the totalitarian path you’re going down.

  33. SteveNon 03 Feb 2010 at 11:40 am

    To johnc and SteveA,

    I don’t think that it is fair or reasonable to stop anyone selling sugar pills and expensive water to whoever wants to buy them as long as they were honest about what was being sold. What would be fair is to require homeopathic ‘drugs’ and other CAM products to adhere to the same high standards of testing and evaluation that ordinary medicines have to go through before being allowed to be sold as drugs alongside proven treatments. Homeopaths are clearly and unequivocally fraudelent if they claim that their producs can be used to treat diseases and it’s difficult to see why they should be given free reign to make such claims. If a pharmaceutical company were to market sugar pills as a cure for headache, they would be severely fined. It’s the acceptance of this double-standard that is so grating.

  34. Steven Novellaon 03 Feb 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Of course people can sell sugar pills if they want to – what are essentially tic tacs.

    The whole issue is whether or not they can make health claims for them.

    That is deceptively complex – as there are different (at least from the point of view of regulation) types of health claims, and we can require different standards and mechanisms of regulation. That’s where the debate is.

    But in principle, I don’t think anyone can reasonably defend the position that companies should be allowed to make fraudulent health claims for their products.

  35. lordrunningclamon 03 Feb 2010 at 5:57 pm

    I just want to say that as I child, my mother and my grandmother took me to a homeopath a number of times and I never did realize it until I started reading and hearing about homeopathy here and on the SGU.

    Funny thing… he would always give us these little white sugar pills that we were supposed to dissolve under our tongues, which I dutifully did every time my mother handed me one. They were sugar pills, of course (I now know). One time I ate about half a bottle of the things because they were sweet and tasted like candy. When my mother found out she panicked and called up the “Doctor” to find out what to do.

    He told her not to worry about it, they weren’t harmful. I’m not sure if we ever went back to the homeopath after that or not.

    So… I conducted this little experiment over 40 years ago.

  36. TsuDhoNimhon 04 Feb 2010 at 3:12 pm

    Steven N –
    But the water that was in contact with the water that was in contact with the water that was in contact with the water that was in contact with the water that was in contact with the water that was in contact with one molecule of the substance learns about substance from the original molecules that were actually in contact with the substance.

    It’s the “I heard it from a friend of my cousin’s hairdresser’s sister’s boyfriend’s old grade school buddy who worked on a movie set that was later walked through by John Travolta, so I know Travolta’s innermost secrets” kind of transmission.

    Donchaunnerstand?

  37. SteveNon 05 Feb 2010 at 4:17 am

    Aah… Now I understand. How silly of me.

  38. georgepseiferton 10 Feb 2010 at 9:17 am

    A friend of mine who is into homeopathy said taking an overdose won’t work. You have to take the correct dosage for it to work properly. Ideally you really need to consult with your homeopath to get the exact dosage for you. I know it’s silly, but that’s what she said. So to cover all the bases I’d like to see the 10^23 crew take the recommended dosage just to knock down that arguement.

    George

  39. SteveNon 12 Feb 2010 at 6:42 am

    In answer to georgeseifert, the 10^23-organised overdose event was directed at the pharmaceutical chain Boots, which sells ‘off-the-shelf’ homeopathic ‘remedies’ alongside real medicine. If homeopaths claim that one needs a personalised dosage for their remedies to work, then by their own reasoning Boots should still not be selling the stuff. Indeed, homeopaths should be campaigning to have Boots remove homeopathic preparations from their shops and sell by prescription only. As usual, the woo-artists demonstrate an impressive lack of critical thinking with regards to their own arguments.

  40. SteveNon 12 Feb 2010 at 6:57 am

    One more thing…

    I posted earlier (Feb 02, 12:30) a calculation showing that a 30C homeopathic remedy not only lacks a single molecule of the ‘active’ ingredient, it also lacks a single molecule of water that had contact with the active ingredient. Then I saw this on the 1023 campaign web site:

    “Some homeopaths will simply administer the remaining water directly as their ‘remedy’. Others, including those who supply most high street retailers, will drip the water into a tube of sugar pills then allow them to dry. It is this sugar which is then sold as ‘medicine’.”

    …ALLOW THEM TO DRY???? So the homeopath goes through 30 cycles of solemn ritual to produce a pill that not only contains no active ingredient or even any magic memory water molecules, it doesn’t even contain any water molecules! Even if the magic memory water was possible, they let it all evaporate away at the last step! What a bunch of loons.