The plants given microwaved water, in the center, are alive and well after three weeks.
A quick update on my experiment to see how feeding plants water boiled in a microwave oven affects their growth: after around three weeks, the microwave plants are doing just fine – as are the other two sets given non-microwaved water. Apologies for picture quality but hopefully it’s clear we have three sets of healthy sprouts here.
It may appear the microwave plants (komatsuna spinach mustard) are a little smaller than the others. However, the sets given straight filtered water (left) and filtered water boiled conventionally on a stove (right) have a fairly wide range of plant sizes, while the microwave ones are more uniform. On average, growth is about the same for all three pots.
At this stage, it appears that feeding plants filtered water boiled in a microwave oven (and then cooled to room temperature) has no affect on growth. If you are wondering why I am testing this, please read part 1 of the experiment. You will find more details on the original claim that microwaving water damages its structure and causes the formation of dangerous radiolytic compounds – something that would affect any food cooked in a microwave oven.
Other details and resources
Part one of Microwaved water: Does it kill plants?
Microwaved water plant experiment on snopes.com
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I did a replication study with a larger sample (300 seeds per water sample), controls, blinding, etc. I can send you a copy of the ‘paper’ if you like (mail me at outeast1ATgmailDOTcom. Results were negative, though – as with your own replication here. The plants did just fine on microwaved water (unsurprisingly).
Thanks for the feedback, Pan Outeast. I’d definitely be interested in seeing the paper. In the meantime, do you have a Website or anything online? My nutritional medicine degree has taken over my life at the moment.