Journal 2

The Unknown About Water

         Water: the Great Myster, written by Saida Medvedeva and Sergey Shumaov in 2006 is a movie about the study of water. Water: the Great Mystery was originally released in Russia as a Television series in 2006 but in 2008 it was converted into a full-length documentary.  Russian directors Julia Perkul and Anastaysia Popova created the film to show the importance of water. People didn’t know much about water and how many things can affect water. Water is the most common substance on earth, and is also the most important element in this world; yet it is the least studied. There were three studies about water that didn’t seem plausible to me; how water has memory, human emotion can affect water, and how music can affect the structure of water. The three main interesting points in the documentary that I found interesting were, all religions use water, water is a unique element, and how water supplies in big cities is recycled.

       The one far-fetched idea that stood out to me is how human emotion can affect water. Dr. Emoto was the one who discovered this ground-breaking experiment. He placed rice into three glass beakers and poured water into each of them. Then every day for a month he said “Thank you” to one beaker, “You're an idiot” to the second, and the third he completely ignored. After one month, the rice that was being thanked began to ferment, giving off a strong pleasant smell. The rice in the second beaker turned black, and the rice that was ignored began to rot. There are many factors to why this experiment does not seem plausible to me. One in particular, is how just from saying a few words to a beaker of water with rice in it can determine if the water knows human emotion. I believe that tempter could have played a role in determining the results, or if the beaker was thoroughly cleaned of any bacteria.

        The one point of interest I found was the study of tap water and Holy Water. The study was done on January 18, 2005, the evening of the Epiphany. On that day two flasks are filled with ordinary tap water. One of them was set inside the church, near the vessel where the ceremony of sanctification is to be performed. Every year on January 19th people go to the churches to pick up holy water that was believed to contain unusual properties. The two flasks were taken to the laboratory after the service. The water was frozen in a cryogenic chamber and photographed under the microscope. The crystals in the tap water looked chaotic, with spots everywhere, while the water that had been in the church had the form of a six-pointed star. I found this experiment very interesting because of how the holy water crystals were in a shape of a six pointed star. Holy water has been used to cure sick animals and they can survive. Scientist have yet to figure out how this happens. This shows how powerful and complex the holy water structure is.