Corentin Louis Kervran (3 March 1901 – 2 February 1983) was a French scientist. Kervran was born in

Quimper, Finistère Quimper (, ; br, Kemper ; la, Civitas Aquilonia or ) is a commune and prefecture of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the prefecture (capital) of the Finistère department. Geography Th ...

(Brittany), and received a degree as an engineer in 1925. In World War II he was part of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. Kervran proposed that nuclear transmutation occurs in living organisms, which he called "biological transmutation". He made this claim after doing an experiment with chickens where they were generating calcium in their egg shells while there was no calcium in their food or soil. He had no known scientific explanation for it. Such transmutations are not possible according to mainstream

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, chemistry, and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

. Proponents of biological transmutations fall outside mainstream

and are not part of accepted scientific discourse.

Biological transmutation

In the 1960s, Louis Kervran claimed to have conducted experiments and studies demonstrating violations of the law of conservation of mass by biological systems, according to which the amount of each chemical element is preserved in all chemical reactions. He claimed that organisms can transmute potassium into calcium by

nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manife ...

in the course of making an egg shell: + → Since biological systems do not contain mechanisms to produce the speed, temperature, and pressure necessary for such reactions, even for extremely short periods of time, this contradicts basic physical laws. Kervran said that his work was supported by prior studies and by reports of industrial accidents involving carbon monoxide. Kervran said that

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

s can facilitate biological transmutations using the

weak nuclear force In nuclear physics and particle physics, the weak interaction, which is also often called the weak force or weak nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions, with the others being electromagnetism, the strong interaction ...

, by what he called "neutral currents." His response to criticism was to claim that

physical law Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) ...

s do not apply to biological reactions, which contradicts the mainstream understanding that physical laws apply for all scales and conditions. The alleged transmutations resemble

cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and p ...

. There is currently no accepted theoretical model which would predict cold fusion to occur. In 1993, Kervran was awarded a parodic

Ig Nobel The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name o ...

prize in Physics due to his "improbable research" in biological transmutation. The award description called him an "ardent admirer of alchemy."

Books

In French: *''Transmutations Biologiques: Métabolismes Aberrants de l'Azote, le Potassium et le Magnésium'' (1962) Paris : Librairie Maloine S.A. (2nd ed. 1963, 3rd ed. 1965) *''Transmutations naturelles non radioactives ; une propriete nouvelle de la matiere'' Paris : Librairie Maloine, (1963) *''Transmutations à la faible énergie : synthèse et développements'' (1964) Paris : Maloine *''A la découverte des transmutations biologiques : une explication des phénomènes biologiques aberrants'' (1966) Paris : Le Courrier du livre *''Preuves Relatives à l'Existence des Transmutations Biologiques'' (1968) Paris : Librairie Maloine S.A. *''Transmutations biologiques en agronomie'' (1970) Paris : Librairie Maloine S.A. *''Preuves en géologie et physique de transmutations à faible énergie'' (1973) Paris : Maloine *''Preuves en biologie de transmutations à faible énergie'' (1975) Paris, Maloine, S.A. , (2nd edition, 1995). *''Transmutations Biologique et Physique Moderne'' (1982) Paris : Librairie Maloine S.A. English translations: *''Biological Transmutations'' C. Louis Kervran, translation and adaptation by Michel Abehsera, 1989, 1998 (first published in 1972) (extract of three of Kervran's books) *''Biological transmutations'', revised and edited by Herbert & Elizabeth Rosenauer, London, Crosby Lockwood 1972 (reprinted by Beekman, New York, in 1998 under ) *''Biological Transmutation. Natural Alchemy.'' Louis Kervran and George Ohsawa, George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, Oroville, California, USA 1971 (reprinted 1975, 1976) 48 pages.

Biological transmutation

Books

See also

References

Further reading