USA TODAY International Edition
Olaf’s ‘ Frozen’ science can be a little slippery
Square poops and breathing butts: We test the silly snowman’s claims
Olaf got deep in “Frozen 2.” During that long horse ride from Arendelle to the Enchanted Forest, the daffy snowman ( voiced by Josh Gad) dropped some mad science trivia on Anna ( voiced by Kristen Bell), Elsa ( Idina Menzel) and Kristoff ( Jonathan Groff) in the new sequel to the animated Disney hit. Olaf 's pronouncement that water has memory turns into a major theme in the movie. But turtles breathing from their butts? Wombats pooping in squares? Are any of these claims true? We asked Nick Uhas, host of Discovery Channel's “The Science Minute” to help us determine whether the snowman was just blowing hot air.
Olaf claims: Water has memory
Sorry, Olaf. The concept that water retains a memory of substances previously dissolved in it is not accepted in the scientific community. The controversial claim shot to prominence in 1988 with the publication of a paper in the respected scientific journal Nature by the late immunologist Jacques Benveniste. The claim defied the laws of physics and molecular biology, and a follow- up investigation found the proclamation was ” as unnecessary as it is fanciful.” “Since water is considered a non- living entity, without any neural tissue, we can with confidence say it does not have memory in the traditional sense,” Uhas says. However, water can provide clues about its origin. In some cases, the impurities left in water “can give us an idea about where the water has been or what it has been exposed to,” Uhas says. For example, if a water sample contains significant salt, people can deduce it was in or around seawater, mineral