NEWS SCIENCE SPACE The pseudoscience of creating beautiful (or ugly) water Thu, Feb 17, 2011, 00:00 AJapanese 'doctor of alternative medicine' claims to be able to think good or bad thoughts when looking at a glass of water and form appealing or ugly ice crystals, writes WILLIAM REVILLE SEVERAL PEOPLE recently asked me what I think of the work of Masaru Emoto.File photograph: Getty Mandatory vaccination not going to happen in the Republic Most Read in News 1 New suspect in Ashling Murphy murder inquiry presented to hospital with injuries 2 Ashling Murphy murder: Gardai identify new person of interest 3 Multiple sclerosis: Common virus may play role in neurological illness 4 His life is 'ruined', says solicitor of man released in Ashling Murphy inquiry 5 'Dear Ashling, our hearts are broken': Tullamore unites to mourn loss of murdered teacher Real news has value SUBSCRIBE Science Columns The mind of the mathematician The mind of the mathematician The stereotype is a dishevelled scatterbrain but in reality we come in all shapes and sizes Our meritocratic educational system serves us well Our meritocratic educational system serves us well Meritocracy has flaws but critics have yet to come up with a superior system That's Maths: Jakob Bernoulli and the law of large numbers That's Maths: Jakob Bernoulli and the law of large numbers Swiss's theorem was first attempt to apply probability outside realm of games of chance Latest Ireland New suspect in Ashling Murphy murder inquiry presented to hospital with injuries 37 minutes ago Public service pay bill reached record high of EUR23.5bn last year 47 minutes ago Man found dead in unexplained circumstances in Co Donegal 54 minutes ago Hybrid Leaving Cert 'not ruled out by Government', says Taoiseach 1 hour ago Government's new housing strategy for people with disabilities welcomed 2 hours ago Features & Opinion Can autonomous vehicles help shape the carbon emissions fight?Apparently, the main "scientific" paper published to date to demonstrate the phenomenon is a photo-essay written by Emoto himself and published in a journal of "alternative" science. This cuts little ice (pun intended) in mainline science. I have no reason to doubt Emoto's sincerity but his work bears many hallmarks of a pseudoscience - the phenomenon is based on claims made by a charismatic leader and is described by an amalgam of science and mumbo-jumbo, there is no credible hypothesis as to causation, no development of the idea, no fruitfulness in the concept, and, above all, no clear scientific demonstration. There is always an audience for this kind of thing. Some people just want to believe in strange phenomena. Emoto's followers are also likely to be into New Age phenomena like Chakras, out of body experiences and past lives. If Emoto is right, you certainly don't want people thinking badly of you! However, I think we can relax. In my opinion, Emoto has the traditional two chances of being right - slim and none. 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