Editing Royal Raymond Rife (section)

== Life and work ==
[[File:RoyRife.jpg|thumb|left|Royal Raymond Rife (age 43) in ''Popular Science Magazine'' (June 1931)]]

Little reliable published information exists describing Rife's life and work. In the 1930s, he made several [[Optical microscope#Compound microscope|optical compound microscope]]s and, using a movie camera, took [[time-lapse microscopy]] movies of microbes.<ref name="PopSci_June1931"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/11/22/archives/bacilli-revealed-by-new-microscope-dr-rifes-apparatus-magnifying.html?sq=royal+rife&scp=2&st=p |title=Bacilli Revealed by New Microscope; Dr. Rife's Apparatus, Magnifying 17,000 Times, Shows Germs Never Before Seen. |newspaper = The New York Times |date = 1931-11-22 | page = 19 }}</ref><ref name=Smithsonian>{{cite book |title=Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution |date=1944 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |page=207ff |url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/annualreportofbo1944smit |language=en}}</ref> He also built microscopes that included [[polarizer]]s.<ref name=CaWest>{{cite journal | last1 = Kendall | first1 = Arthur Isaac | last2 = Rife | first2 = Royal | title = Observations On Bacillus Typhosus In Its Filterable State: A Preliminary Communication | journal = California and Western Medicine | volume = XXXV | issue = 6 | pages = 409–11| date = December 1931| pmc=1658030 | pmid=18741967}}</ref>  Rife claimed magnifications of 17,000× or more for some of these microscopes.<ref name=Smithsonian/>

A report published by the Smithsonian Institution described one of these microscopes as equipped for "transmitted and monochromatic beam [[Dark-field microscopy|dark-field]], [[Polarized light microscopy|polarized]], and slit-ultra illumination, including also a special device for [[crystallography]]". It added that several doctors had attended a demonstration of another of Rife's microscopes and had been impressed by its clarity and high magnification.<ref name=Smithsonian/>

A distinctive feature of the microscopes, according to Rife and to other scientists who examined them, was a false-colour effect by which, when a microbe was illuminated by a particular wavelength of polarised [[monochromatic light]], different for each type of microbe, the microbe and only the microbe would emit a distinctive colour of light (turquoise for typhoid bacteria, ruby red for ''Mycobacterium leprae'', etc.), thus taking the place of [[staining]] and allowing otherwise difficult organisms to be plainly seen.<ref name=Smithsonian/><ref name=CaWest/>

Some of the observations Rife claimed to have made with his microscopes are, however, contradicted by modern findings. For instance, he reported that under certain conditions [[typhoid]] bacteria [[Pleomorphism (microbiology)|changed]] into a much smaller form,<ref name=Smithsonian/><ref name=CaWest/> and claimed that most cancerous tumours contained a microbe that had no less than five forms, one of which was indistinguishable from [[E. coli]] while another resembled a [[fungus]].<ref name=Smithsonian/>

Rife also reported that a 'beam ray' device of his invention could destroy microbial pathogens.<ref name="PopSci_June1931"/><ref name=NewsPapers>{{cite news |last =Jones |first =Newell |title =Dread Disease Germs Destroyed By Rays, Claim Of S.D. Scientist: Cancer Blow Seen After 18-year Toil by Rife |page=1 |publisher=San Diego Evening Tribune |date=1938-05-06 }}</ref> Rife claimed to have documented a "Mortal Oscillatory Rate" for various pathogenic organisms, and to be able to destroy the organisms by vibrating them using radio waves of this particular frequency. According to the ''San Diego Evening Tribune'' in 1938, Rife stopped short of claiming that he could cure cancer, but did argue that he could "devitalize disease organisms" in living tissue, "with certain exceptions".<ref name=NewsPapers/> In a 1931 profile, Rife warned against "medical fakers" who claim to cure disease using "electrical 'vibrations{{' "}}, stating that his work did not uphold such claims.<ref name="PopSci_June1931"/>

[[File:Oryg rife.jpg|thumb|Rife machine (1922)]]

An obituary in the ''[[Daily Californian]]'' described his death at the age of 83 on August 5, 1971, stating that he died penniless and embittered by the failure of his devices to garner scientific acceptance.<ref name="daily-californian"/> Rife blamed the scientific rejection of his claims on a [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] involving the [[American Medical Association]] (AMA), the Department of Public Health, and other elements of "organized medicine", which had "brainwashed and intimidated" his colleagues.<ref name="daily-californian">{{cite news |first=Del |last=Hood| title = Scientific Genius Dies: Saw Work Discredited | work = [[Daily Californian]] | date = 1971-08-11 |url=https://rifevideos.com/scientific_genius_dies_saw_work_discredited.html }}</ref>