French Scientists Say Little; The French Press, Too Much

PARIS-- In a country where thousands of physicians practics ho- meopathy the Beneviste affair has generated widespread publicity, much of it favorable to the French scientist. Paris Match magazine, for example acclaimed the initial paper about the alleged memory of water as a stupendous breakthrough, but did not mention Nature's subsequent investigation.

The newspaper Le Point reported with tongue not in cheek, rumor that several Nobel Prize-winning physicists met in Bermuda, somewhere near the mythcal triangle. to agree that “the world of physics is entering in to a new phase. A priest stated during mass that “holy water keeps the memory if God.” And Benveniste was quoted as saying “Im the best ...Those who criticize me just aren’t playing in the same league."

Influential members of the popular press even rallied to Benvenists’s defense after Nature's flashy debunking of the Scientist’s research. The daily Le Monde charged that the presence...