British Homoeopathic Journal October 1995, Vol. 84, pp. 218-28 Research review Homoeopathy a biophysical point of view MICHAEL W. TOWSEY* AND MOHAMED Y. HASANt Introduction Homoeopathy as a therapy attracts criticism from conventional medicine on two grounds: a paucity of statistically acceptable studies and lack of a mechanism that can be cast in terms of known principles of science. This paper addresses the second of these issues which, from a sociological point of view, is probably the more important in explaining the resistance of conventional medicine to homoeopathy. The resistance is understandable. The dominant paradigm, indeed the only para- digm, in modem medicine for the action of pharmaceuticals is the biochemical. How then, can homoeopathic medicines which are chemically pure water be physiologically active? A typical dismissal of homoeopathy argues that it defies 'such elementary physi- cal principles as the law of mass action'. 1 The thesis of this paper is that the action of homoeopathic medicines cannot be under- stood in biochemical terms. A biophysical mechanism seems to be implicated. In fact, an understanding of the homoeo- pathic mechanism immediately leads to a broader field of study, sometimes referred to as 'energy medicine'. The field may be broadly defined as a system of medical prac- tice 'based on the concept that in addition to the well-known biochemical aspects of living organisms thereare energetic aspects, in the sense that energy fields of a physically *Department of Biophysics, United Arab Emirates University, PO Box 17666, A1-Ain, UAE. tDepartment of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, United Arab Emirates University, PO Box 17666, A1-Ain, UAE. measurable nature may also be related. '2 The term 'energy fields' is deliberately vague so as not to exclude the investigation of sound, for example, and its effect on human health. But most usually, energy medicine investi- gates the effects on biological systems of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the frequency range from UV to as low as a few hertz. Some of the phenomena studied by energy medicine also appear to manifest in inert sys- tems. Thus the more general term 'subtle energies' is frequently used to describe the discipline. The phenomena under investiga- tion are subtle in the sense that the amount of energy transferred between systems is extremely small given the magnitude of the response to it. In this paper we focus primarily on the mode of action of homoeopathics. We do not pretend to have developed a complete expla- nation, because there is no doubt that the electromagnetic processes involved are still incompletely understood. But as Becker, a proponent of energy medicine, points out, 'we may not know all there is to know about electromagnetism at this point in time. In this regard, I have the feeling that physics will eventually be expanded through the stud~ of the energetic aspects of living organisms. 2 A convenient place to begin is with moths. Detection of pheromones by moths The male cabbage looper moth finds a female by following a trail of pheromone 'scent' which she releases in flight. The olfactory mechanism used by the male has been eluci- dated by entomologist Philip Callahan at the 218