Love this question. I was vegetarian for a few years, so I too thoroughly researched this question, and I guess you could say I spent many hours "running experiments" as well...

I see you posing two questions:

• Does soaking beans (possibly with added bases, acids, salts, etc) reduce flatulence?
• What are other ways to reduce flatulence?

Some background on my method:
When I cook beans, I always soak them for over 24 hours, and sometimes as long as 3 days. I always soak them in the fridge - just because they will start getting funky if left on the counter for over 24 hours - and I usually change the water once a day. I only ever salt them after they are finished cooking, because I am a believer in the old wives tale that salt breaks apart bean skins.

Does it work?
Because I always soak my beans, I don't have a control to compare my experience to. So I cannot confidently say whether soaking reduces flatulence. The scientific articles you cite would probably better answer this question.

That being said, a method of reducing flatulence which I am fairly confident works, is to just eat more beans! Back when I was a vegetarian, I could easily go through over 2lbs of (dry) beans a week. This did not prevent me from having a social life, and I didn't notice any difference in amount (or is it technically volume?) of gas compared to when I didn't eat beans. I remember reading somewhere this is a result of how our stomachs adapt to what we eat over the long term.

And in the end, maybe flatulence isn't something we should be trying to avoid. As the old ditty goes,

Beans beans, the magical fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So let's have beans with every meal!

Words to live by indeed!

You are forgetting one step of science: theory. It is bad science to jump to experiments without theory. If you know what causes flatulence: oligosaccharides: raffinose and one I cant remember, that we cant digest but our bacteria can. I think these are water soluble, so soaking should work. BUT: only if you destroy the cells where they are stored. But then you would destroy the bean as well, i guess (i think this is where the soda comes in, it is a base, so it helps the pectinases breaking up the pectin of the cells walls). So i guess the choice is between soggy tasteless beans or farts.

NOT soaking your beans at all gives the nicest taste, I think. And soaking without soda wont do much, is my theory (see above). Hope this helps?