Someone recently asked about an elementary school science project that claimed water boiled in a microwave oven (then cooled) is harmful to plants. The e-mail gained some popularity and was then rebutted at the following site:

http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp

There are two important points that should be taken into consideration when trying to understand these studies.
1. What the “proper” blinded study says is correct: there are many factors that can affect outcomes and so valid scientific methods are the only way to draw conclusions.
2. Nevertheless, studie sometimes make a somewhat arrogant opening claim typical of the western scientific community. They say “water heated in a microwave oven is no different in “structure or energy” than water heated with a gas flame, on an electric stove, or over a wood fire: It’s just water, plain and simple. ” To say that water remains the exact same after going through all of the above three procedures leaves no room for the possibility that perhaps there is some “energetic” change that we have not discovered as of yet, or do not know how to measure. Like many things, we do not know everything there is to know about energy. Only because current scientific methods have not been able to measure something (yet) does not means that it does not exist. In my limited experience, I have seen the effect of homeopathy, also something that does not fall within measurable or understandable scientific range (yet), and so is disregarded. Although the elementary science project is not scientifically valid, it does have an accurate message. Microwaves, as well as the many other influences in our environment, may have an effect on energy/qi/life force or whatever we want to call it. We may not know what that effect is, but we shouldn’t dismiss it all too easily.