He claimed that organisms can transmute potassium into calcium by nuclear fusion in the course of making an eggshell: 3919K + 11H → 4020Ca Since biological systems do not contain mechanisms to produce the speed, temperature, and pressure necessary for such reactions, even for extremely short periods, this contradicts basic physical laws.

[4] Kervran said that prior studies and reports of industrial carbon monoxide accidents supported his work.

[6][7] Kervran said that enzymes can facilitate biological transmutations using the weak nuclear force, by what he called "neutral currents.

Science writer Joe Schwarcz has written that "the bottom line is that the Kervran effect doesn't exist... [he] simply came to the wrong conclusion based on some faulty observations.

"[3] In 1993, Kervran was awarded a parodic Ig Nobel prize in Physics due to his "improbable research" in biological transmutation.

[10][11] Kervran took an interest in organic farming and was a contributor to Henri-Charles Geffroy's La Vie Claire magazine.