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GlibMonkeyDeath 1 hours ago [-]
This is a molecular dynamics (with a specific TIP4 water model) and AI. I would characterize this paper (and basically most MD/AI simulation) as "guided hypothesis generation". I am skeptical that this result will hold up to experimental validation. It is incredibly easy to generate molecular dynamics results that look perfectly reasonable but have nothing to do with "reality" (i.e., how a lab experiment with the same system would turn out.)
One of the biggest challenges with water is modeling proton transport (i.e. pH, as water is a weird self-ionizing material.) Protons move too fast for MD steps to be stable, so they have to be approximated in some way. That is one reason why there are so many water models to choose from. Each model has a trade-off that is fine in some contexts, disastrous in others.
My money is on a TIP4 artifact.
le-mark 14 hours ago [-]
Somewhat related is the hydration shell around molecules especially proteins. It’s been shown that semi structured water around proteins help guide molecules to reaction sites. Water is an amazing thing!
>The boundary between them is thought to terminate at a "second critical point." This deeply supercooled region is so hard to study experimentally because water crystallizes rapidly
This sounds like the type of thing that could be used for some future technology that doesn’t exist yet and I can’t comprehend. Some sort of process that takes advantage of being in this second critical state.
jzer0cool 6 hours ago [-]
Could someone explain why raising standing water temperature to boiling, I see a constant stream of bubbles forming at the bottom of pan and floating up? Was there air between the water molecules to begin with? Any articles to help explain? I understand the obvious phase transition to gas which would escape at the top, but cannot quite grasp how we get the trapped air at the bottom.
So there is O2 dissolved in the water. Most of what I read explains we can boiling away O2 as seen forming on the side of the walls of a pot as temp rises. What's curious is why those bubbles seem endless if they have been expelled out, like some equilibrium of oxygen getting dissolved again back into the water.
I wonder if we are finding structure here because we are looking for structure.
Similar how you can find human faces in random pixels or rocks.
hedgedoops2 4 hours ago [-]
Nah.
If I understand the article correctly, they found a phase transition reaction, a chemical reaction that occurs in liquid water below 0 C that splits the body of liquid water into one continuous region of high density and one of low, so its no longer a uniform liquid.
This would also release heat, like the freezing reaction (and unlike random rearrangements of molecules in the liquid).
hedgedoops2 4 hours ago [-]
Okay thats wrong they didnt find that. Looks like just did some ml and it suggested that such a reaction exists and what the two species are.
Also its unclear whether during the phase transition there really is two seperate macroscopic regions as opposed to a mixture (maybe like a suspension)
hedgedoops2 4 hours ago [-]
You should still be able to confirm it with calorimetry though I guess?
I'm confused about this.
hks0 7 hours ago [-]
But what if we find the exact same face in different rocks or pixels? I also think the researchers were aware of this issue as the article mentions they were careful not bias their model.
Very interesting point though!
Ericson2314 9 hours ago [-]
This neural network stuff does give me real divination vibes, not gonna lie.
mefistofeles 13 hours ago [-]
Sadly paper is behind paywall. But I question the choosing of the water model to be a 4-site, and why that specific 4-site one (TIP4P) instead of others that have shown to be more accurate such as OPC. Also, there seem to be previous experimental work (https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.2877) showing some evidence that apparently is not even referenced in this new paper. I wonder how does that compare, if at all.
Wait, wouldn't it just be "Oh, science just made a mistake, and that is how it progresses"...
Despite the "consensus" thoroughly "debunking" it conclusively many times...
Also, if it ever happens, I think it would be during course of many decades that all the existing "scientists" can save their faces, and new generations won't care about "Science" being wrong once again, despite all the projections of "certainity" back then..
aand16 13 hours ago [-]
Don't know about right, but for a while it worked better than "regular" medicine. At least it wouldn't kill you, when the alternative was intensive bloodlettings and purgatives.
JumpCrisscross 12 hours ago [-]
> for a while it worked better than "regular" medicine. At least it wouldn't kill you
Homeopathy was invented after the discovery of germ theory [1][2]. So not really. And homeopathy has always suffered from an adulteration problem.
The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.
lovich 9 hours ago [-]
Chiropractory is another pseudoscience that started early and has been surprisingly resilient in spite of the lack of evidence. I was flabbergasted when I learned in my 30s that this was a made up medicine by an OG antivaxxer and magnetic medicine proponent due to the fact that insurance would still pay for it when I was a kid at least, and real doctors still recommended it on occasion.[1][2]
The problem with making claims about the chiropractic practices is that it spans such a huge range of "absolute bullshit" to "physically grounded adjustments". Joints and vertebrae (especially) really can be out of alignment, and you can absolutely see that on imaging. Muscles in constant tension can be self-reinforcing in ways that don't easily correct themselves without an external force. My wife has significant back issues as a result of various injuries -- one leading to an SI joint that frequently pops out of place, one due to an injury that fractured most of the spinal processes -- and you can absolutely feel the "pop" when an adjustment helps something slide back in place. This is validated by imaging and sports medicine, not just chiropractic quacks.
At the same, adjusting your back isn't going to cure your cancer, no matter what idiots with fake degrees say.
The challenge is that the latter is just as stupid as homeopathy, but whereas homeopathy really has no redeeming qualities beyond the placebo effect, at least chiropractic practices actually do sometimes have groundings in reality.
Retric 8 hours ago [-]
The issue with changing the alignment of bones with an “adjustment” is it’s your body keeping things in that position. Physical therapy is almost always a better long term fix because it can actually strengthen muscles and increase flexibility through stretching enabling someone to actually maintain proper alignment.
Physical manipulation can work, but the most useful techniques are in widespread use such as dealing with a dislocated shoulder. Which leaves chiropractic practices with almost nothing that’s both unique and particularly useful.
OutOfHere 8 hours ago [-]
Your understanding of modern homeopathy is rooted in misconceptions. Many homeopathic products actually contain a sufficient amount of the active ingredient that they absolutely can conceivably have a significant biological effect.
JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago [-]
> Many homeopathic products actually contain a sufficient amount of the active ingredient that they absolutely can conceivably have a significant biological effect
On the upside, "the risk of bioaccumulation of metals/metalloid from the homeopathic medicines seems to be rather low, due to small quantities of those products prescribed to be applied per day, as well as insignificant metal contamination of the majority of tested products" [1].
> The problem with making claims about the chiropractic practices is that it spans such a huge range of "absolute bullshit" to "physically grounded adjustments".
No it’s not a problem. When the founder claims he got the information from a ghost of a doctor 50 years ago, the whole thing is bullshit from the ground up. It’s pseudoscience.
Chiropractic “medicine” isn’t just claiming that they can make your joints feel better, the claim that it can cure cancer is at the core of it. It’s no better than a massage, but wants to claim the title of “medicine” or “doctor” for its practitioners when that’s as far from the truth as homeopathic “medicine”.
Alex3917 9 hours ago [-]
> Homeopathy was invented after the discovery of germ theory [1][2]. So not really.
Germ Theory was only finally accepted (after initially being rejected) due to the advent of evidence-based medicine, which homeopathy popularized.
JumpCrisscross 9 hours ago [-]
> due to the advent of evidence-based medicine, which homeopathy popularized
Source?
bonesss 9 hours ago [-]
As I recall homeopathy does pretty fine statistically compared to many treatments. Not because the water does anything, but because the provider has time, and talks to patients about their problems and life.
A lot of doctors are shoving people out the door based on their first thought inside a short appointment as they type up a prescription.
Homeopathy is ineffective kookery, but our medical system has some well known gaps.
pryce 11 hours ago [-]
Homeopathic medicine is a discredited theoretical explanation for a phenomenon that empirical testing shows does not exist. For 'homeopathy' to be right, it would need the to become 'right' twice -
first: new data would need to begin existing, and then second: the homeopathic mechanisms would need to become the most plausible explanation for that data
qsera 10 hours ago [-]
>empirical testing shows does not exist..
But what are the incentives of those who did those tests? That should be said in the same breath as you say "empirical testing/evidence".
adrianN 9 hours ago [-]
Imagine the number of citations you could get for a solid double blind study that showed homeopathy to beat placebo. The only better impact I could imagine would be showing that climate change doesn’t actually exist.
qsera 9 hours ago [-]
Mmmm..the question is..who would fund it. And if someone funded it, who would publish it...
BLKNSLVR 8 hours ago [-]
There's enough money in 'crank health' that, if it were possible to publish something that might have a chance of lending some credibility (and thus expanding the breadth of the vulnerable customer base), then I would think it would have been done already.
This implies to me that the counter-evidence is strong and complete enough to discourage 'investment' into such a pursuit.
qsera 8 hours ago [-]
>There's enough money in 'crank health' that,
But there is many order of magnitude more money invested in preventing the publication of something like that..
All the "reputed" journals who gets funded by pharma would not touch such a study, despite any merits it have. This is so apparent to anyone who is not completely oblivious of how the world work that no one in their right mind will even attempt to fund such a study...
BLKNSLVR 8 hours ago [-]
They need to wait for someone not in their right mind then. Has RFK been petitioned?
(this is not a serious reply, my apologies. I get that entrenched views are very difficult to change, hence the phrase "Science advances one funeral at a time", and funding sources are bias-generating - refer oil companies and climate change. Having said that, isn't any human that drinks any water taking part in homeopathy? I mean, dehydrated folks are likely to be less healthy than hydrated folks, but I think that's a case of correlation doesn't imply causation)
qsera 7 hours ago [-]
>Has RFK been petitioned?
It is really funny when people claim that Trump just want his friends to make money.
Will someone explain to me how all Trumps friends are making money from pseudo science and not from the biggest and ever growing pharma business, that he appoints someone like RFK in that position.
adrianN 8 hours ago [-]
You get funding for such a study the same way you get funding for anything else: first you run cheap small studies, perhaps in mice, perhaps observational, that show an interesting effect and motivate why you need money to run a proper clinical study.
qsera 7 hours ago [-]
Approximately how old are you? 20s? 30s? 40s? 50s?...
antoniojtorres 9 hours ago [-]
Is this a bit? Please state your point clearly instead of conspiratorial innuendo.
qsera 8 hours ago [-]
I think the point is clear. If it is not clear to you, you are already beyond help...
antoniojtorres 8 hours ago [-]
More vagaries.
qsera 8 hours ago [-]
Here is something real for you.
Here is an insightful comment [1] in this thread but it is "dead" now, thanks to the down votes of true believers of "science". Any study that goes against the narrative despite any of the merits, would suffer the same fate as this comment.
Homeopathic medicine is already recommended by 1 out of 1000000000000000000 doctors.
not_a_bot_4sho 10 hours ago [-]
Nice, this comment broke my composure.
qsera 10 hours ago [-]
Are those commodity doctors? Or real doctors?
aeonik 12 hours ago [-]
Homeopathy actually works great depending on what you use it for: I've been trying homeopathic vodka and it's done wonders for my health.
aweiher 7 hours ago [-]
You are microdosing alcohol
etchalon 13 hours ago [-]
Stealing this forever.
OutOfHere 14 hours ago [-]
There is no basis to suggest that any product uses this property of water. As for homeopathy, it isn't one thing. The effects, if any, can vary greatly by the substance and the concentration. Some low-dilution products work and many high-dilution products don't. There is such a thing as excessive dilution. Anyone who is painting a simpler picture of it is almost certainly wrong.
13 hours ago [-]
DrBazza 10 hours ago [-]
If I add water to a glass of whiskey and dilute it, why don't I get twice as drunk?
qsera 10 hours ago [-]
But you can drink a lot more that way and get way more drunk!
OutOfHere 8 hours ago [-]
Assuming the original dilution is adequate, further dilution will slow the consumption, making one less drunk.
qsera 8 hours ago [-]
Try drinking a pint dry, and try drinking it diluted with water. And let me know what was easy...
OutOfHere 8 hours ago [-]
Because the amount of total intoxicant is the same.
Let:
A = amount of ethanol
V = initial whiskey volume
W = added water
Initial concentration: c₁ = A / V
After dilution: c₂ = A / (V + W)
If you drink the entire diluted glass: ethanol consumed = c₂(V + W) = A
Intoxication ∝ ethanol consumed
Therefore: drunkenness ∝ A not ∝ (V + W)
Adding water changes concentration, not the total ethanol: A = constant ⇒ drunkenness = constant (ignoring effects of drinking rate).
jiggawatts 12 hours ago [-]
Homeopathy is very literally the singular concept that more diluted medicine works better.
Saying that “less diluted works better” is saying the diametric opposite of what Homeopathic “theory” does!
OutOfHere 11 hours ago [-]
You're speaking of classical homeopathy, not practical observation. In practice there are many homeopathic products with varying dilutions, many of which have a meaningful amount of the substance, and therefore the distinct possibility of a biological effect.
BobbyTables2 9 hours ago [-]
Agree! Someone once told me that homeopathic doctors often put significant amounts of allopathic medicine in their “homeopathic” concoctions. Does wonders for effectiveness! Perpetuating the classical myth in this manner is also great for business!
Of course, there are also a number of cases where western “supplements” were caught containing actual prescription medicine, not just natural precursors or such. Same idea…
OutOfHere 8 hours ago [-]
That might be true but it's absolutely not what I was getting at. Certainly I have never had or even seen a supplement containing any prescription medicine.
My comment was strictly in the context of ingredients and isolated labeled products that are used only in the homeopathic space.
jiggawatts 9 hours ago [-]
Sure, but homeopaths would consider the less diluted ones to be the weaker “medicine”!
OutOfHere 8 hours ago [-]
Perhaps some very traditional ones would. Most people are just concerned with addressing their symptoms.
Rightly or wrongly, homeopathic products are considered medicines, not supplements, and people in general are very mindful of spending money on medicines that don't work.
kyralis 8 hours ago [-]
> Rightly or wrongly, homeopathic products are considered medicines, not supplements, and people in general are very mindful of spending money on medicines that don't work.
[Citation needed].
People spend enormous amounts of money on junk "cures" and have done for centuries. Homeopathy is just one of the many current such scams.
qsera 7 hours ago [-]
You are forgetting the fact that many allopathic medicines are also junk cures which are seldom not better than a placebo (pushed through by flawed methodologies and corruption). And when they are found, they gets banned in US, but continued to be used in third world, where the now "junk" cures are sold as legit science!
This could be why Homeopathy can compete with allopathy because both the versions are "junk", so "junk" sold by someone who has more time to talk with the patients win..
OutOfHere 1 hours ago [-]
Many mainstream medicines absolutely are junk, e.g. phenylephrine as a nasal decongestant. Moreover many can be fairly harmful, sometimes causing permanent damage. As a case in point, I have a prescription medicine induced permanent tinnitus. Other prescription medicines gave me kidney injury and high blood pressure, but at least those effects were temporary and reversible. Practically all rx medicines also come with an assortment of harmful additives and even petroleum dyes (artificial colors) that are known to be inflammatory and injurious.
Anyhow, it's not the angle of discussion that I was going for. Your assertion that homeopathy as a whole is a scam is rooted in a tiring misconception that all of its products are too dilute to work which is a falsity. Numerous homoeopathic products absolutely have a sufficient amount of the product to result in a biological effect.
spacebacon 9 hours ago [-]
[dead]
BLKNSLVR 8 hours ago [-]
"Water has memory, and whilst its memory of a long lost drop of onion juice seems infinite, it somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it."
- excerpt from Storm, by Nick Minchin
The entirety of this song is a listen worth your time. Doubly so if you've never heard of Nick Minchin before.
qsera 5 hours ago [-]
Who said it forgets it?
potatosalad99 14 hours ago [-]
So the OTA firmware updates on my dehumidifier for when they discover a new kind of water will come in handy after all!
aljgz 9 hours ago [-]
Dehumidifiers will end up being more efficient in one mode. When the manufacturer creates the new ones, a firmware update moves all legacy devices to the less efficient mode.
felooboolooomba 14 hours ago [-]
Nah, IFIFY: So the OTA firmware updates on my dehumidifier is for when they make a new kind of dehumidifier that they want me to buy!
14 hours ago [-]
doctorpangloss 11 hours ago [-]
"In a neural network." is the new "In mice."
Ericson2314 9 hours ago [-]
Well put. That's exactly right. (And I don't even mind mouse studies!)
jocelyner 8 hours ago [-]
[dead]
cwmoore 14 hours ago [-]
Great to see progress on ice-9 /s
zer00eyz 11 hours ago [-]
"I have been a writer since 1949. I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that might help others. When I write, I simply become what I seemingly must become. I am six feet two and weigh nearly two hundred pounds and am badly coordinated, except when I swim. All that borrowed meat does the writing.
In the water I am beautiful." ― Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House
boothby 13 hours ago [-]
So if liquid water is really a mixture of water and water, is it safe to say that this paper establishes that water is wet?
jagged-chisel 13 hours ago [-]
Only if the molecules have a hydration shell
cellular 10 hours ago [-]
"Density is greatest at 39F, not 32F"
But density at "greatest" would mean volume shrinking...right?
I don't understand the article's logic.
appreciatorBus 14 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
tomhow 10 hours ago [-]
Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
One of the biggest challenges with water is modeling proton transport (i.e. pH, as water is a weird self-ionizing material.) Protons move too fast for MD steps to be stable, so they have to be approximated in some way. That is one reason why there are so many water models to choose from. Each model has a trade-off that is fine in some contexts, disastrous in others.
My money is on a TIP4 artifact.
This sounds like the type of thing that could be used for some future technology that doesn’t exist yet and I can’t comprehend. Some sort of process that takes advantage of being in this second critical state.
Dissecting the hydrogen bond network of water: Charge transfer and nuclear quantum effects[2024]
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads4369
Resonance Character of Hydrogen-bonding Interactions in Water and Other H-bonded Species[2005]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16581375/
Similar how you can find human faces in random pixels or rocks.
If I understand the article correctly, they found a phase transition reaction, a chemical reaction that occurs in liquid water below 0 C that splits the body of liquid water into one continuous region of high density and one of low, so its no longer a uniform liquid.
This would also release heat, like the freezing reaction (and unlike random rearrangements of molecules in the liquid).
Also its unclear whether during the phase transition there really is two seperate macroscopic regions as opposed to a mixture (maybe like a suspension)
I'm confused about this.
Very interesting point though!
So it's just a numerical simulation with some ML techniques?
(To be clear, I don't think that will actually happen, but it would be hilarious if it did!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater
Despite the "consensus" thoroughly "debunking" it conclusively many times...
Also, if it ever happens, I think it would be during course of many decades that all the existing "scientists" can save their faces, and new generations won't care about "Science" being wrong once again, despite all the projections of "certainity" back then..
Homeopathy was invented after the discovery of germ theory [1][2]. So not really. And homeopathy has always suffered from an adulteration problem.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory_of_disease
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
Homeopathy was created in 1796, and we still haven’t gotten rid of it.
Meanwhile 65 years later https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic_controversy_and_c...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_David_Palmer
At the same, adjusting your back isn't going to cure your cancer, no matter what idiots with fake degrees say.
The challenge is that the latter is just as stupid as homeopathy, but whereas homeopathy really has no redeeming qualities beyond the placebo effect, at least chiropractic practices actually do sometimes have groundings in reality.
Physical manipulation can work, but the most useful techniques are in widespread use such as dealing with a dislocated shoulder. Which leaves chiropractic practices with almost nothing that’s both unique and particularly useful.
On the upside, "the risk of bioaccumulation of metals/metalloid from the homeopathic medicines seems to be rather low, due to small quantities of those products prescribed to be applied per day, as well as insignificant metal contamination of the majority of tested products" [1].
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20674842/
No it’s not a problem. When the founder claims he got the information from a ghost of a doctor 50 years ago, the whole thing is bullshit from the ground up. It’s pseudoscience.
Chiropractic “medicine” isn’t just claiming that they can make your joints feel better, the claim that it can cure cancer is at the core of it. It’s no better than a massage, but wants to claim the title of “medicine” or “doctor” for its practitioners when that’s as far from the truth as homeopathic “medicine”.
Germ Theory was only finally accepted (after initially being rejected) due to the advent of evidence-based medicine, which homeopathy popularized.
Source?
A lot of doctors are shoving people out the door based on their first thought inside a short appointment as they type up a prescription.
Homeopathy is ineffective kookery, but our medical system has some well known gaps.
But what are the incentives of those who did those tests? That should be said in the same breath as you say "empirical testing/evidence".
This implies to me that the counter-evidence is strong and complete enough to discourage 'investment' into such a pursuit.
But there is many order of magnitude more money invested in preventing the publication of something like that..
All the "reputed" journals who gets funded by pharma would not touch such a study, despite any merits it have. This is so apparent to anyone who is not completely oblivious of how the world work that no one in their right mind will even attempt to fund such a study...
(this is not a serious reply, my apologies. I get that entrenched views are very difficult to change, hence the phrase "Science advances one funeral at a time", and funding sources are bias-generating - refer oil companies and climate change. Having said that, isn't any human that drinks any water taking part in homeopathy? I mean, dehydrated folks are likely to be less healthy than hydrated folks, but I think that's a case of correlation doesn't imply causation)
It is really funny when people claim that Trump just want his friends to make money.
Will someone explain to me how all Trumps friends are making money from pseudo science and not from the biggest and ever growing pharma business, that he appoints someone like RFK in that position.
Here is an insightful comment [1] in this thread but it is "dead" now, thanks to the down votes of true believers of "science". Any study that goes against the narrative despite any of the merits, would suffer the same fate as this comment.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48728644
Let:
A = amount of ethanol
V = initial whiskey volume
W = added water
Initial concentration: c₁ = A / V
After dilution: c₂ = A / (V + W)
If you drink the entire diluted glass: ethanol consumed = c₂(V + W) = A
Intoxication ∝ ethanol consumed
Therefore: drunkenness ∝ A not ∝ (V + W)
Adding water changes concentration, not the total ethanol: A = constant ⇒ drunkenness = constant (ignoring effects of drinking rate).
Saying that “less diluted works better” is saying the diametric opposite of what Homeopathic “theory” does!
Of course, there are also a number of cases where western “supplements” were caught containing actual prescription medicine, not just natural precursors or such. Same idea…
My comment was strictly in the context of ingredients and isolated labeled products that are used only in the homeopathic space.
Rightly or wrongly, homeopathic products are considered medicines, not supplements, and people in general are very mindful of spending money on medicines that don't work.
[Citation needed].
People spend enormous amounts of money on junk "cures" and have done for centuries. Homeopathy is just one of the many current such scams.
This could be why Homeopathy can compete with allopathy because both the versions are "junk", so "junk" sold by someone who has more time to talk with the patients win..
Anyhow, it's not the angle of discussion that I was going for. Your assertion that homeopathy as a whole is a scam is rooted in a tiring misconception that all of its products are too dilute to work which is a falsity. Numerous homoeopathic products absolutely have a sufficient amount of the product to result in a biological effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U&t=353s
The entirety of this song is a listen worth your time. Doubly so if you've never heard of Nick Minchin before.
But density at "greatest" would mean volume shrinking...right?
I don't understand the article's logic.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html