I Didn’t Know That. . .

Q: Dr. Julian Whitaker’s Health and Healing newsletter is advertising “T-wave cleaning capsules” that take the place of laundry detergent. Do they work?

A: No, according to Robert Park of the University of Maryland, a spokesman for the American Physical Society. The advertising claims that the capsules contain ceramic pebbles that cause water to dissociate, along with tourmaline that “enhances water’s natural dirt dissolving ability” and magnets to intensify their activity. Such claims contradict the laws of physics, Park says, and are simply “pseudoscience dressed up in the language of science.” The Federal Trade Commission has closed and fined several companies that have advertised similar balls, Park said.