In a truly remarkable interview published in SCIENCE magazine of 24 December, 
Professor Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who co-discovered HIV and who won 
the Nobel Prize in 2008, describes his newest work that has significant implications 
on homeopathy.   

Montagnier, who is also founder and president of the World Foundation for AIDS 
Research and Prevention, makes the following strong statement for homeopathy 
and homeopathic doses: "I can't say that homeopathy is right in everything. What 
I can say now is that the high dilutions are right. High dilutions of something are 
not nothing. They are water structures which mimic the original molecules."  

In a study that was published in 2009, Montagnier demonstrated that some bacterial 
DNA sequences are able to induce electromagnetic waves, even at high aqueous 
dilutions up to 10^18. This study was an important contribution to the growing evidence 
base in fundamental research with direct relevance to homeopathy.

Montagnier will take on the leadership of a new research institute at Jiaotong University 
in Shanghai and plans to study the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves produced by 
DNA in water. His research team will study both the theoretical basis and the possible 
applications in medicine.

In the interview Montagnier says that he cannot pursue this research in France because 
he does not have much funding there. Because of French retirement laws, he is no longer 
allowed to work at a public institute. But there is another reason as well. When he applied 
for funding from other sources, he was turned down. Montagnier argued that there is a kind 
of fear around this topic in Europe. 

In this context he refers to Dr Jacques Benveniste, a French physician/scientist who 
conducted research on homeopathic doses. Montagnier regards him as a "modern 
Galileo." "Benveniste was rejected by everybody, because he was too far ahead. He 
lost everything, his lab, his money. I think he was mostly right, but the problem was 
that his results weren't 100% reproducible." "I am told that some people have reproduced 
Benveniste's results, but they are afraid to publish it because of the intellectual terror from 
people who don't understand it." 

Montagnier is not worried that his colleagues will think he has drifted into pseudoscience. 
He replied adamantly: "No, because it's not pseudoscience. It's not quackery. These 
are real phenomena which deserve further study." 

 The complete interview is available 

(Author unknown)