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Lance Schuttler wrote an article arguing that DNA is a wave form that uses gravity to bend light. I'm extremely skeptical of basically every claim in the article.

One of the more extreme claims refers to an experiment:

In 1984, Russian scientist Dr. Peter Gariaev discovered that when a DNA molecule was placed inside a small quartz container, it naturally absorbed every photon in the room. A stunning analogy of this would be that of a single person standing in a large sports stadium and having every photon in the stadium somehow bending directly to that person, leaving that person’s body literally glowing with light, while the rest of the stadium goes completely dark.

Is that an accurate description of the experiment (if any)?

Oddthinking
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ErikE
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    That sure must have been one dark room! I wonder why there is light around me - after all, there's quite a lot of DNA in me. Maybe it's the "quartz container" that does it. But in that case, why bother with the DNA? This claim is total BS. – hdhondt Feb 16 '17 at 09:20
  • The Russian Wikipedia has an [article about the guy](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%B5%D0%B2,_%D0%9F%D1%91%D1%82%D1%80_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87). He pushes forwards ideas such DNA-based ghosts and is mostly a nutcase. – T. Sar Feb 16 '17 at 10:27
  • Also, the informed name is not quite correct. The correct name for this scientist, in the latin script, would be Pjotr Garajajev. – T. Sar Feb 16 '17 at 10:28
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    Errrrr... I don't even... WHAT? I mean... an organic molecule? *Absorbing* photons *at a distance*? Then why only the "room", or the "stadium"? Why not absorbing every photon in the universe? :-D – DevSolar Feb 16 '17 at 10:29
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    @hdhondt The dark is the least of it! It's going to be colder than interstellar space in there if you've removed all the photons. I think that particular claim fits into the 'too nonsensical to be worth discussing' category. – richardb Feb 16 '17 at 11:53
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    If the body in the stadium is glowing with light, then by definition the stadium cannot be completely dark... – Mark Henderson Feb 16 '17 at 12:01
  • This doesn't make any sense. If the DNA absorbed all protons, that wouldn't that break up the molecular bonds? Did the room disintegrate? I doubt it... – ventsyv Feb 16 '17 at 15:05
  • Oddly enough, that paragraph links, as if to a source, to a page that does not claim anything remotely similar to what that particular paragraph itself does. – Dan Getz Feb 16 '17 at 15:28
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    Looks like one to file as ["not even wrong"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong) – user56reinstatemonica8 Feb 16 '17 at 16:53
  • "Much of the information in this article came from The Synchronicity Key". I looked it up and they cite [this article](http://www.aipro.info/drive/File/150.pdf). :P The book seems to fabricate a story (in addition to the story the article is spinning). – Laurel Feb 17 '17 at 20:53
  • I have to say, when you search for this guy's name on Google Scholar you get a whole world of fascinating stuff. Samples: (1) http://www.dejanrakovicfund.org/radovi/2016_NEUREL.pdf (2) http://www.ceswp.uaic.ro/articles/CESWP2015_VII2A_SIM.pdf (3) http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9639-2_16 – Avery Feb 18 '17 at 00:06
  • More: (4) http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ta/2014/00000012/00000001/art00005 (5) http://worldnpa.org/abstracts/abstracts_6500.pdf – Avery Feb 18 '17 at 00:14
  • What does it even mean to put DNA in quartz? –  Feb 18 '17 at 02:21
  • I really had no doubts about the article, but I wanted there to be *something* on the internet responding to its ridiculousness... – ErikE Feb 18 '17 at 02:22
  • @DevSolar - "Why not absorbing every photon in the universe?" Because THAT would be implausible. :D – PoloHoleSet Feb 23 '17 at 19:33

1 Answers1

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As noted in the comments, this summary of the experiment comes from several books by David Wilcock, an influential lecturer in the New Age circuit. Wilcock cites a PDF entitled "Crisis in Life Sciences. The Wave Genetics Response," but rather than talking about absorption, this file refers to Garyaev's claim that a quartz filled with DNA will creates a glow in a physical space that lasts for a month after the quartz has been taken away from the space, in other words, a ghost.

Garyaev has also published scientific papers claiming, more mundanely, to have observed DNA-created biophotons, in an actual leading science journal called Quantum Electronics. The American Institute of Physics translates every article in this journal into English, so you can read about his experiment in "Two-photon-excited luminescence of solid-state DNA", Quantum Electronics 24.6 (1994), and "Two-photon-excited luminescence of genetic structures", Quantum Electronics 26.2 (1996). Around this time, however, he broke away from the mainstream academy, claiming a conspiracy against him.

Scientifically speaking, luminescence is the opposite phenomenon of "absorbing every photon in the room". This nonsensical word soup appears to have been invented by Wilcock, as I cannot find it in the actual writings of Garyaev, although these are admittedly numerous and quite perplexing. I believe that this is not a description of what Garyaev claimed to witness in any experiment he did.

Garyaev is apparently a well-known Internet troll and hangs out on the forum molbiol.ru, which has a thread with more information on his all-encompassing theory (he claims, for example, that DNA ghosts hang around inside a woman's body after abortion, and that through the ghosts of sperm, children can bear the DNA of an ex-lover, a common fringe claim called telegony). He also has an English-language website at eng.wavegenetic.ru where he shows how he does his experiments, as well as some of the many fascinating claims he has made.

Avery
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    I appreciate all the background information, and reading between the lines, you appear to have answered the stated question. However, could you edit your answer to more explicitly answer the question? Should be pretty easy. – ErikE Feb 18 '17 at 01:38