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异端之水:回顾杰拉尔德·波拉克的“水的第四阶段

November 18, 2015 by Charles Eisenstein

November 2015



在《水的第四阶段》(The Fourth Phase of Water)一书中,杰拉尔德·波拉克(Gerald Pollack)巧妙地提出了一种水化学的新理论,这一理论不仅对化学和生物学具有深远意义,而且对我们理解自然和对待自然的隐喻基础也具有深远意义。

我首先要强调的是,这并非是一本由某个科研资质倍受质疑的人所写的一本“新时代”的书,而是一本有关化学的书,虽然很容易被门外汉所理解。波拉克是华盛顿大学一名德高望重的教授,是众多同行评议(peer-reviewed )论文的作者,是2012年普里果金奖章(Prigogine Medal)的获得者,同时也是学术杂志《水》的编辑。我提及这些是因为在一个充满所谓的伪科学的领域,范式泛滥的理论会招致过度的敌意,不过在我眼里这却是卸掉科学严密负担的推测性研究。

的确,波拉克在书中前面一个章节中写到两个事件:20世纪60年代的聚合水(polywater)溃败,20年后关于水记忆(water memory)的争议。这些事件阐明了科学机构的政治性以及不同意见被压制的方式。此外,它们也揭示了一些我们所知道的科学背后神圣不可侵犯的形而上的假设——而这本书间接地违反了这些假设,关于这一点我后边会谈到。无怪乎,这本书在科学界不受欢迎甚至遭受冷遇。尽管如此,《水的第四阶段》这本书避免了有时会影响正统书籍的那些过激性或迫害性故事。该书的语气谦恭、轻松、在呈现某些推测性观点时小心翼翼。

人们可能会认为,在现代化学经过200多年甚至更长时间的发展后,像水这种基本而又貌似非常简单的东西现在应该已经被完全理解了。在读这本书之前,我理所当然地认为其中的解释肯定就是高中和大学课本中的那些,比如蒸发、毛细管作用(capillary action)、结冰、气泡形成、布朗运动、表面张力。大家都是这样认为的,这也许正是传统解释很少受到细查的原因。然后,《水的第四阶段》却证明了哪怕是一点点创造性的细查都会揭露出传统解释的缺陷。

书中的核心概念是“禁入区水”(exclusion zone water),或者简称“禁区水”。假设一烧杯水,有成千上万个塑料微球体悬在其中。标准化学会认为这些微球体在水中会平均分布——它们遍布于水的大部分区域。然而,在烧杯的周边(即使任何亲水性物质沉入水中),水却仍然清澈,没有任何球体。原因何在?标准化学预测几个分子厚度的禁区可能存在于玻璃周围,两极的水分子和分散的电荷粘在了一起,但是波拉克所观察到的禁水区至少有1/4毫米厚——这是数以万计的分子的厚度。

波拉克和同事小心翼翼地进行着实验,通过测试最终排除各种对此现象的传统解释(比如对流、聚合物冲刷、静电排斥、材料泄露)。他们还开始了研究禁水区的特性,结果令人欣喜:禁区水几乎排斥一切,不仅包括悬浮的微粒而且包括溶质。禁区水在270纳米时表现出电磁吸收顶峰,比散装水释放出更少的红外辐射,但其粘度和折射指数都高于散装水。更令人吃惊的是,他们发现禁水区有一种净负电荷,而周边的书PH值较低,这表明有质子从禁区水中喷射了出来。

凭借这些信息,波拉克和同事做出假设:禁水区由水的液晶体组成,其中氧和氢以2:3的比例堆积成一层层的六边形。当然,冰也是由六边形的薄片堆积而成,但冰片的堆积靠的是外在质子的挤压。波拉克认为禁区层比较例外,排列的方式使得每层的氧和临近层的氢常常相邻。这种排列并不非完美无瑕,其产生的引力要大于斥力,足以产生内聚和分子矩阵,从而可以排除哪怕是最小体积的溶质。

哪里来的能量造成了这种电荷分离?它来自于入射的电磁辐射。当水样被免于电磁辐射和热流时,禁水区就无法形成。

《水的第四阶段》这本书旨在将这一假设运用到水化学中的各种现象上。在我看来,作为科学家,他最大的优点就是问一些别人不会问的貌似天真的问题。比如,他质疑了援引氢粘合压力作用于水面的表面张力理论这一传统解释。水面的这种巨大张力真的来自于1纳米厚的水层所产生的能量吗?他问道,为什么凝胶99.9%的成分都是水却并不漏水呢?为何带电的雾状水滴结合成云而不是彼此排斥,并均匀分散于天空呢?为何来自一杯热咖啡的蒸汽会是一股一股地分散开来呢?为何热水有时比凉水更快结冰呢?为何船只在经过15到30分钟后才在相对静止的水面上留下航痕呢?

对于这些问题,这本书提供了非常精简的答案,当然还有很多其他问题在书中也有涉及。他所引证的实验直截了当而又令人信服。虽然对化学中某些基本问题的回答偏离传统,但他并没有援引超自然或超常力量。他也没有质疑基本的物理定律(热力学、相对论、量子理论等)。人们不禁会想:那么为何他的理论被忽视了呢?

我认为原因超越了对范式转变的标准库恩式抵抗(Kuhnsian resistance)。毕竟,波拉克并非是第一个因提出和水相关的理论而陷入麻烦的科学家,其理论旨在指出水不仅仅是一种一般的、无结构的物质,更是一种化学媒介、一种化学的原始成分。这其中大有文章。

迅速回顾一下前面提到的两种争议,即聚合水和水记忆,对我们具有很大的教益。关于聚合水,俄国化学家发现狭窄试管中的水呈现出一些异常特性,既不是液态也不是固态(这种异常和波拉克描述的完全一样)。一阵骚动随之发生,西方科学家指责俄国人没有消除水中的杂质——即来自玻璃试管的溶化硅微量元素。最后,俄国人承认水确实不纯净,这一发现也会扔进了历史的垃圾桶。然而,并没有人解释溶化硅怎么会引起这些异常特性。波拉克指出,绝对纯净的水,万能溶剂,几乎不可能得到。这一俄国人发现事件的实质从来没被考虑过,而是找了一个方便的借口对其置之不理。

水记忆的说法更是匪夷所思。1988年,雅克·本沃内斯特(Jacques Benveniste)在《自然》杂志上发表论文,声称曾经含有抗体的水样仍能唤起对白细胞的免疫反应,似乎水“记住”了他们的存在。《自然》杂志出版了这一文章(本沃内斯特是法国顶尖级的免疫学家),但接着就派遣了一个审问分队进行调查,包括职业魔术师詹姆斯·兰迪(James Randi)及欺诈性调查者沃尔特 ·斯图尔特(Walter Steward)。对接下来发生的事情,大家的描述不一,但都一致同意没有找到欺诈的直接证据。该团队得出结论说结果是无法复制的,这一说法本沃内斯特极力否认却无济于事。结果对他的资助取消了,他的实验室被没收了,他的学术生涯毁于一旦。今天,他的名字主要和病理科学相联系,他的讣告是人物暗杀(character assassination)的杰作。

请注意在上一段中我把“记住”这个词加了引号,好像是为了让读者确信我认为水实际上无法进行记忆。这个引号暗示了水最多只能表现得好像能够记忆一样。因为,毕竟那只是水,是吗?它不具有复杂性、组织、智力、经验存在状态,而这些正是拥有实际记忆的必要条件。现代化学只是认为:水是一种普遍流体,任何两个水样本基本上都是完全相同的,只是温度和纯净度不同而已(对于那些叫真的人来说就是氢的同位素比例不同)。

聚合水、水记忆以及波拉克的理论全都违反了这一原则,这是一种人类中心主义(anthropocentrism)。我们的文明,特别是其对自然的对待和商品经济同一性方面,其运作是基于这样一种假设,即我们人类自身拥有自我的全部特征。剩下的世界只是一堆物质,因此我们可以自由地任意开发,将我们的智力强加于缺乏智慧和理智的底层。任何违反这一原则的科学理论或科技对于那些坚持这一原则的人来说都是大错特错甚至难以容忍。

我们的社会今天正经历着转变,看待这一转变的一种方法就是我们把“自我”越来越多地赋予到过去“非自我”的东西上。我们已经取得了一些进步:今天我们充分认识到女性和少数种族的合法人格(尽管,不幸的是,种族主义和性别主义的思想仍然比大部人白人所意识到的要更加顽固)。我们不再把动物看成是毫无理性的野兽,尽管人们对动物智力的方式和程度还所知甚少。甚至连植物智力都正成为热门研究话题,尽管很少有科学家在谈及“植物具有智力”或“植物具有主观经验”时不发表不承担责任声明——“当然我并不是说它们真的具有智力。”

必须承认,杰拉尔德·波拉克也没有说水是否具有智力。不过,他的研究为这一观点打开了一扇门,因为其研究暗示了任何两个由纯H2O构成的“水样”都是独特的,其结构取决于与之相接触的物质。为何我在这里要把“水样”加引号?因为这个词意味着如果我从更大的水源取少量的水,比如从浴缸里取一试管水,那么取出来的少量之水和更大水源中的水具有同样的特性。换句话说,这意味着任何水样从根本上来说都可以从其环境中隔离。

波拉克的研究对一致性(uniformity)和隔离性(isolability)两个假设提出了质疑。他虽然没有最终声称水可以携带信息,但当他观察到禁水区的特性因材料不同而不同时,他离这一结论已经很近了。或许正是因为这样,顺势医疗抓住了他的研究不放(正如他们曾抓住本沃内斯特的研究不放)。顺势医疗(homeopathy)在正统医学的眼里当然是江湖郎中的典型,波拉克的作品就和其有关联(尽管他从未对此作出任何声明),这必然会成为科学界警惕其作品的原因之一。

任何严肃的观察者都不会说他已经“证实”了顺势医疗的有效性,更不用说人们可以在网上找到的那些水形态动物和产品了。但是,如果我们接受他的研究结果——我希望其他的科学家能够重复并延伸他的实验——至少没有人再会说这些形态和不容置疑的科学原理相矛盾了。当然,如果任何两个纯净水样都完全相同,那么有结构的水产品和药品就是一派胡言了。多亏了波拉克(以及他在科学文献中所发现的一些列其他研究者),这件事变得不再确定无疑了。

《水的第四阶段》为我们贡献了一个更大的范式转变,这一范式转变正走入所有的科学,成为界定我们文明神话的过渡。单单是在科学领域,他的研究成果,如果得以证实的话,所产生的影响就会是非常深远的,特别是在细胞生物学、植物生理学、化学信号及医学领域。除此之外,它们也打破了我们的旧观念:认为我们生活在一个由一般物质组成的死宇宙;我们是这个宇宙的唯一智慧生灵,因此是其合法的主人。波拉克是朝着萨满教(shamanic)世界观进行科学进化的一部分,这种世界观认为所有的物体都拥有某种存在状态。

对这种转变的抵制仍然非常强烈,或许是因为其影响如此之大。即使没有意识到其深远影响,正统思想家也会本能地攻击与之一条战线的任何作品。常见的手段就是宣称“污染”(contamination),这(连同欺诈)被作为忽略反常结果的杀手锏,无论是在考古学还是在天文学和化学领域。这等于是对马虎和无能的指控。没有人想被看成傻瓜,因此,当背离传统的那些人,比如本沃内斯特、波拉克、庞滋(Pons)、弗雷诗曼(Fleischmann)、韩尔顿·阿普(Halton Arp),被放逐之时,那些私下里同情他们的人便保持沉默,因为他们也在担心自己的资金支持和研究生涯,这无可厚非。

虽然我觉得杰拉尔德·波拉克赞同我们文明神话的更大转变,但在其书中却没有任何迹象。他把自己局限在化学领域,当他冒险进入猜想领域时,他明确表示自己是单枪匹马。或许他的低调口气、对替代性解释的考虑、对实验为本的坚持有助于减少正统科学读者的天生怀疑。但我不敢肯定。这部作品的激进影响如此之近又如此之深。


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Bitcoin: bc1q2a2czwhf4sgyx9f9ttf3c4ndt03eyh3uymjgzl

Dogecoin: DT9ECVrg9mPFADhN375WL9ULzcUZo8YEpN

Polkadot: 15s6NSM75Kw6eMLoxm2u8qqbgQFYMnoYhvV1w1SaF9hwVpM4

Polygon: 0xEBF0120A88Ec0058578e2D37C9fFdDc28f3673A6

Zcash: t1PUmhaoYTHJAk1yxmgpfEp27Uk4GHKqRig

Donate & Support

As much as possible I offer my work as a gift. I put it online without a pay wall of any kind. Online course contributions are self-determined at the time you register for each. I also keep the site clean of advertising.

This means I rely on voluntary financial support for my livelihood. You may make a recurring gift or one-time donation using the form below, in whatever amount feels good to you. If your finances are tight at all, please do not give money. Visit our contact page instead for other ways to support this work.

Recurring Donations

Note from the team: Your recurring donation is a resource that allows us to keep Charles doing the work we all want him doing: thinking, speaking, writing, rather than worrying about the business details. Charles and all of us greatly appreciate them!

One-Time Donation

Your gift helps us maintain the site, offer tech support, and run programs and events by donation, with no ads, sales pitches, or pay walls. Just as important, it communicates to us that this work is gratefully received. Thank you!

Cryptocurrency Donation

Hi, here we are in the alternate universe of cryptocurrency. Click the link below for a list of public keys. If your preferred coin isn't listed, write to us through the contact form.

View Keys



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Recurring Donation

We are currently accepting monthly recurring donations through PayPal; we use PayPal because it allows you to cancel or modify your recurring donation at any time without needing to contact us.


Choose what feels good, clear, and right.

One-Time Donation

We are currently accepting one-time donations with any major credit card or through PayPal.


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