Editorial
Authors: Holandino Carla , Jerman Igor , Van de Kraats Everine , Bonamin Leoni Villano 
Published: December 2024

Homeopathy, once considered solely a well-established alternative or complementary healing discipline, has also become a focal point for a burgeoning branch of scientific exploration.
 
Beyond its conventional healing practice, the foundations and mechanisms of potentized high dilutions are subject to scrutiny through an expanding body of scientific research. These investigations go far beyond clinical studies and include tissue and cellular models of different organisms and, more recently, ecology. In addition, in the last decades, the stated research has gone far beyond living beings since it extended to the physicochemical realm, studying the altered characteristics of fluids subjected to the homeopathic ultra-high dilution (UHD) process.
 
Extensive scientific efforts have offered convincing evidence of the altered properties of fluids treated with the UHD methodology. These findings provide substantial support for the view that the efficacy of homeopathy is rooted in the emergent properties of polar solvents, water, in particular. More than that, the water properties we learn about from UHD solutions also occur in other treatments of water or aqueous solutions. This is why we can establish a new science of emergent properties of water. It is to substantiate and make new steps in developing this science that the November Conference in Ljubljana was dedicated to.
 
This multi-faceted approach sheds light on the fundamental principles of the effectiveness of homeopathy as well as of many other non-chemical water treatments, opening up an entirely new horizon for the development of global health, ranging from individual living beings, including humans, through ecosystems to planet Earth as a whole.
 
The XXXVII GIRI Meeting was held in November 9-12th, 2024 in Ljubljana, at the Town Hall, Slovenia, with the co-participation and shared organization of Bion Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and World Water Lab consortium, an initiative to gather scientists interested to understand and advance the science of emergent properties of water.
Research into water is different from the investigation of other substances because it so aptly reflects some as yet hidden principles and laws of nature. Many of them show to be utterly neglected or even banned from the standpoint of conventional (academic) sciences since they do not conform to their mechanistic and reductionist models. These profound features are investigated by water scientists working on all aspects of water properties, from physicochemical and biological aspects to the quantum electrodynamic field view. The initiative to gather these three institutions (GIRI – BION – WWL) allowed to discuss together and create a wide view of UHD effects on living systems.
 
The program was organized in four Keynote talks, two round tables and 15 individual presentations selected from a careful peer-review process. One general seminar about the main topics studied in the context of the WWL activities closed the meeting.
 
All talks focused the physicochemical aspects of UHDs, mainly the probable field effect, provoking a discussion about how good-quality basic research can improve the plausibility of clinical / agronomic use of UHD preparations, which seems to be an essential grounding for the evidence-based medicine clinical studies (including the veterinary ones) by improving its trial protocols, and for a high-tech sustainable resource of food production. Since both aspects are complementary, the need of high-level clinical studies on homeopathy and high dilutions is an urgent issue as well, as was also discussed.
At the end of the conference, the Madeleine Bastide Prize was given to the best individual presentations, being the first place attributed to Prof. Fateme Mirzajani (Iran), the second place to Dr. Leonardo Faedo (Brazil - UK), and three mentions were given to Sandra Tribolo (France), Lorena Guimarães (Brazil), and Adriana Miranda (Brazil).
We wish the readers an enjoyable read!