Page 65 - Summer2008

All Thumbs Book Reviews

So treatment at the cervical 5 disc can directly that makes up roughly one third of the collagen
have an effect on yttrium.” In other words, he molecule. According to Olree, scandium is

simply started with the rst vertebra and counted abundant on the sun but is the rarest mineral on
backwards down Russell’s periodic table from the earth. He posits that scandium is somehow

the last mineral to the rst. The great scientists transmitted to us through electromagnetic radia-
whose work Walters spent 80 pages reviewing at tion when we are exposed to sunshine. According
the beginning of the book would have designed to one of his lectures available on the internet,
1
experiments to test whether these associations the “DNA sequence of vitamin D”—by which he
were true, but Olree apparently did not. must mean the sequence for the vitamin’s recep-
tor or an enzyme that metabolizes it—is rich in
AN IMPLAUSIBLE THEORY the scandium-associated codon, which he says
The most puzzling part of the theory is the explains why we need sunlight for vitamin D.
lack of clarity about the exact roles of these One must wonder, however, whether we receive
minerals. Under the entry for lanthanum, Walters the actual scandium from sunlight or only its
states that silica and lanthanum form “the glue spirit.
that holds ‘junk’ DNA together,” based on the The case of the seven noble gases is similar.
abundant appearance of their associated codons Noble gases such as argon and xenon are, outside
in these regions of DNA. This suggests that the of this particular book, universally regarded as
minerals are actually bound to the DNA itself. irrelevant to biology because they do not engage
In the introduction to the Olree chart, however, in chemical reactions. They nevertheless have
Walters states that the minerals associated with their place on the Olree chart. Since they do
the stop codons that signal the end of the pro- not form charges and thus do not interact with
tein—sulfur, hydrogen and yttrium—need to be biological molecules, however, Walters states
present in order for the protein to be properly that their presence in the genome may be more
made from the RNA copy, or else the protein “psychological” than “physical.”
will be made in fragments and degraded. This It would appear that Olree’s theory is based
suggests that the minerals interact with RNA not on any experimental evidence, but merely on
during protein synthesis rather than with DNA. the analogy between the repeating pattern of 64
Both propositions are implausible because scien- in the several natural and philosophical systems
tists reproduce these processes in test tubes all he has tied together. Putting aside the questions
over the world every day without ever adding of whether all 22 of Russell’s “subatomic min-
lanthanum or yttrium to the mix. Without certain erals” actually exist as such and whether the The most
enzyme cofactors like magnesium, the processes exclusion of all the minerals in the ninth octave puzzling part
will not go forward, but the absence of yttrium and the inclusion of all the others was justi ed,

never results in fragmented proteins. the analogy is weaker than it rst appears. DNA of the theory
Another question also arises: if these miner- and the I Ching arrive at the number 64 in very is the lack of
als are essential components of DNA or RNA, different ways: DNA uses four symbols in three clarity about
why is it that no one has found them there? In- positions (four multiplied by itself three times is
deed, some of the statements in the book make 64) while the I Ching uses two symbols in six exactly what
it ambiguous whether one should expect to see positions (two multiplied by itself six times is the roles
some of these minerals in the body at all. For 64). of these
example, the mineral scandium is said to be as- The I Ching becomes analogous to the ge-
sociated with proline, an important amino acid netic code only if one counts every two lines as a minerals are.

SUMMER 2008 Wise Traditions 63