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NARRATOR: So in June 1988 Benveniste's research appeared in the pages of Nature. It caused a scientific sensation. Benveniste became a celebrity. His memory of water made news across the world. He seemed to have found the evidence that made homeopathy scientifically credible, but the story wasn't quite over. Benveniste had agreed to let in a team from Nature. It was a decision he would live to regret. Maddox set about assembling his team of investigators and his choices revealed his true suspicions. First, he chose Walter Stewart, a scientist and fraud-buster, but his next choice would really cause a stir: James Randi.JACQUES BENVENISTE: I looked in my books and I said who are, who is Randi and couldn't find any scientist called Randi.NARRATOR: That was because the amazing Randi isn't a scientist, he's a magician, but he's no ordinary conjuror. He's also an arch sceptic, a fierce opponent of all things supernatural.JACQUES BENVENISTE: I called John Maddox and I said what, what is this? I mean I thought you were coming with, with scientists to discuss science.NARRATOR: But Randi felt he was just the man for the job. On one occasion he had fooled even experienced scientists with his spoon bending tricks.JAMES RANDI: Scientists don't always think rationally and in a direct fashion. They're human beings like anyone else. They can fool themselves.NARRATOR: So Randi became the second investigator.JAMES RANDI: Astonishing.NARRATOR: On 4th July 1988 the investigative team arrived in Paris ready for the final showdown.SIR JOHN MADDOX: The first thing we did was to sit round the table in Benveniste's lab. Benveniste himself struck us all as looking very much like a film star.JAMES RANDI: I found him to be a charming, very continental gentleman. He's a great personality. He was very much in control.JACQUES BENVENISTE: We were quite relaxed because there was no reason why things should not go right.NARRATOR: The first step was for Benveniste and his team to perform their experiment under Randi's watchful gaze. They had to prepare two sets of tubes containing homeopathic water and ordinary water. If the homeopathic water was having a real effect different from ordinary water then homeopathy would be vindicated. (ACTUALITY EXPERIMENT CHAT) As they plotted the results it was clear the experiment had worked.JAMES RANDI: There were huge peaks coming up out of it and that was very active results, I mean very, very positive results.WALTER STEWART: The astonishing thing about these results is that they repeated the claim, they demonstrated the claim that a homeopathic dilution, a dilution where there were no molecules, could actually have some sort of an effect.NARRATOR: But Maddox had seen that the experimenters knew which tubes contained the homeopathic water and which contained the ordinary water, so perhaps unconsciously, this might have influenced the results, so he asked them to repeat the experiment. This time the tubes would be relabelled with a secret code so that no-one knew which tube was which.JAMES RANDI: We went into a sealed room and we actually taped newspapers over the windows to the room that were accessible to the hall.WALTER STEWART: We recorded in handwriting which tube was which and we put this into an envelope and sealed it so that nobody could open it or change it.NARRATOR: At this point the investigation took a turn for the surreal as they went to extraordinary lengths to keep the code secret.JAMES RANDI: Walter and I got up on the stepladder and stuck it to the ceiling of the lab.WALTER STEWART: There it was taped above us as all of this work went on.JACQUES BENVENISTE: Sticking an envelope to the ceiling was utterly ridiculous. There is no way you can associate that with science.NARRATOR: With the codes out of reach the final experiment could begin. By now Benveniste had lost control of events.JACQUES BENVENISTE: It was a madhouse. Randi was doing magician tricks.JAMES RANDI: Yes I was doing perhaps a little bit of sleight-of-hand with an object or something like that, just to lighten the atmosphere.NARRATOR: Soon the analysis was complete. It was time to break the code to see if the experiment had worked. Benveniste and his team were brimming with optimism.
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