‘Attagirl’ for a Budding Scientist

Emily Rosa, 11, has shown what a girl can achieve in science with a little encouragement. When she was in the fourth grade, the Loveland, Colo., resident conducted a science project that experts describe as brilliant in debunking the controversial alternative medical treatment of therapeutic touch.

Her achievement, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., is an example for other girls, who too often abandon interest in science and math as they approach puberty. She apparently is the youngest researcher to have a scientific report--coauthored with her parents and a physician who specializes in uncovering medical fraud--appear in the AMA journal.

A basic tenet of therapeutic touch is that practitioners can sense another’s “energy field” with their hands and by moving their hands can help realign fields disrupted by illness.

Emily’s study, a school science project, tested 21 practitioners to determine whether they could actually detect a human energy field. The result: They fared no better than chance. Emily had the strong support of her mother, a registered nurse and a critic of therapeutic healing.

More study of therapeutic touch surely lies ahead, as does more heated debate on the issue. But at least one fact is indisputable: Emily’s contribution to that debate.