Linus Carl PaulingFRS (/ˈpɔːlɪŋ/PAW-ling; February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994)[4] was an Americanchemist andpeace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.[5]New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time.[6] For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded theNobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of five people to havewon more than one Nobel Prize.[7] Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes,[8] and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other beingMarie Skłodowska-Curie.[7]
Herman Henry William Pauling, Linus Pauling's father,c. 1900
Linus Carl Pauling was born on February 28, 1901, inPortland, Oregon,[13][14] the firstborn child of Herman Henry William Pauling (1876–1910) and Lucy Isabelle "Belle" Darling (1881–1926).[15]: 22 He was named "Linus Carl", in honor of Lucy's father, Linus, and Herman's father, Carl.[16]: 8 His ancestry included German and English.[17][18]
In 1902, after his sister Pauline was born, Pauling's parents decided to move out of Portland to find more affordable and spacious living quarters than their one-room apartment.[19]: 4 Lucy stayed with her husband's parents in Oswego until Herman brought the family toSalem, where he worked briefly as a traveling salesman for the Skidmore Drug Company. Within a year of Lucile's birth in 1904, Herman Pauling moved his family toOswego, Oregon where he opened his own drugstore.[19]: 4 He moved his family toCondon, Oregon, in 1905.[19]: 5 By 1906, Herman Pauling was suffering from recurrentabdominal pain. He died of a perforatedulcer on June 11, 1910, leaving Lucy to care for Linus, Lucile and Pauline.[16]: 9
Pauling attributes his interest in becoming a chemist to being amazed by experiments conducted by a friend,Lloyd A. Jeffress, who had a small chemistry lab kit.[19]: 17 He later wrote: "I was simply entranced by chemical phenomena, by the reactions in which substances, often with strikingly different properties, appear; and I hoped to learn more and more about this aspect of the world."[20]
In high school, Pauling conducted chemistry experiments by scavenging equipment and material from an abandoned steel plant. With an older friend, Lloyd Simon, Pauling set up Palmon Laboratories in Simon's basement. They approached local dairies offering to perform butterfat samplings at cheap prices but dairymen were wary of trusting two boys with the task, and the business ended in failure.[19]: 21
At age 15, the high school senior had enough credits to enterOregon State University (OSU), known then as Oregon Agricultural College.[19]: 22 Lacking two American history courses required for hishigh school diploma, Pauling asked the school principal if he could take the courses concurrently during the spring semester. Denied, he leftWashington High School in June without a diploma.[15]: 48 The school awarded him an honorary diploma 45 years later, after he was awarded two Nobel Prizes.[7][21][22]
Pauling held a number of jobs to earn money for his future college expenses, including working part-time at a grocery store forUS$8 per week (equivalent toUS$230 in 2024). His mother arranged an interview with the owner of a number of manufacturing plants in Portland, Mr. Schwietzerhoff, who hired him as an apprentice machinist at a salary ofUS$40 per month (equivalent toUS$1,160 in 2024). This was soon raised toUS$50 per month.[19]: 23 Pauling also set up a photography laboratory with two friends.[19]: 24 In September 1917, Pauling was finally admitted by Oregon State University. He immediately resigned from the machinist's job and informed his mother, who saw no point in a university education, of his plans.[19]: 25
In his first semester, Pauling registered for two courses in chemistry, two in mathematics, mechanical drawing, introduction to mining and use of explosives, modern English prose, gymnastics and military drill.[19]: 26 His roommate was childhood pal and lifelong best friend Lloyd Jeffress.[23] He was active in campus life and founded the school's chapter of theDelta Upsilon fraternity.[24] After his second year, he planned to take a job in Portland to help support his mother. The college offered him a position teachingquantitative analysis, a course he had just finished taking himself. He worked forty hours a week in the laboratory and classroom and earnedUS$100 a month (equivalent toUS$1,600 in 2024), enabling him to continue his studies.[19]: 29
In his last two years at school, Pauling became aware of the work ofGilbert N. Lewis andIrving Langmuir on theelectronic structure of atoms and theirbonding to formmolecules.[19]: 29 He decided to focus his research on how thephysical andchemical properties of substances are related to the structure of the atoms of which they are composed, becoming one of the founders of the new science of quantum chemistry.[17]
Engineering professor Samuel Graf (1887–1966)[25][26] selected Pauling to be his teaching assistant in a mechanics and materials course.[19]: 29 [27][28] During the winter of his senior year, Pauling taught a chemistry course forhome economics majors. It was in one of these classes that Pauling met his future wife,Ava Helen Miller.[19]: 31 [28]: 41 [29][30]
In 1926, Pauling was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship to travel to Europe, to study under German physicistArnold Sommerfeld in Munich, Danish physicistNiels Bohr in Copenhagen and Austrian physicistErwin Schrödinger inZürich. All three were experts in the new field ofquantum mechanics and other branches of physics.[2] Pauling became interested in how quantum mechanics might be applied in his chosen field of interest, theelectronic structure of atoms and molecules. In Zürich, Pauling was also exposed to one of the first quantum mechanical analyses of bonding in thehydrogen molecule, done byWalter Heitler andFritz London.[32] Pauling devoted the two years of his European trip to this work and decided to make it the focus of his future research. He became one of the first scientists in the field of quantum chemistry and a pioneer in the application of quantum theory to the structure of molecules.[33]
In 1927, Pauling took a new position as an assistant professor atCaltech intheoretical chemistry.[34] He launched his faculty career with a very productive five years, continuing with hisX-ray crystal studies and also performing quantum mechanical calculations on atoms and molecules. He published approximately fifty papers in those five years, and created the five rules now known asPauling's rules.[35][36] By 1929, he was promoted to associate professor, and by 1930, to full professor.[34] In 1931, theAmerican Chemical Society awarded Pauling the Langmuir Prize for the most significant work in pure science by a person 30 years of age or younger.[37] The following year, Pauling published what he regarded as his most important paper, in which he first laid out the concept ofhybridization of atomic orbitals and analyzed thetetravalency of thecarbon atom.[38]
At Caltech, Pauling struck up a close friendship withtheoretical physicistRobert Oppenheimer at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, who spent part of his research and teaching schedule as a visitor at Caltech each year.[15][39] Pauling was also affiliated with Berkeley, serving as a visiting lecturer in physics and chemistry from 1929 to 1934.[40] Oppenheimer even gave Pauling a stunning personal collection of minerals.[41] The two men planned to mount a joint attack on the nature of the chemical bond: apparently Oppenheimer would supply the mathematics and Pauling would interpret the results. Their relationship soured when Oppenheimer tried to pursue Pauling's wife, Ava Helen. When Pauling was at work, Oppenheimer came to their home and blurted out an invitation to Ava Helen to join him on a tryst in Mexico. She flatly refused, and reported the incident to Pauling. He immediately cut off his relationship with Oppenheimer.[15]: 152 [39]
Pauling introduced the concept ofelectronegativity in 1932.[43] Using the various properties of molecules, such as the energy required to break bonds and thedipolemoments of molecules, he established a scale and an associated numerical value for most of the elements — thePauling Electronegativity Scale — which is useful in predicting the nature of bonds between atoms in molecules.[44]
In 1936, Pauling was promoted to chairman of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering at Caltech, and to the position of director of the Gates and Crellin Laboratories of Chemistry. He would hold both positions until 1958.[34] Pauling also spent a year in 1948 at theUniversity of Oxford as George Eastman Visiting Professor and Fellow of Balliol.[45]
Linus Pauling with an inset of his Nobel Prize in 1955
In the late 1920s, Pauling began publishing papers on the nature of thechemical bond. Between 1937 and 1938, he took a position as George Fischer Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry atCornell University. While at Cornell, he delivered a series of nineteen lectures[46] and completed the bulk of his famous textbookThe Nature of the Chemical Bond.[47][36]: Preface It is based primarily on his work in this area that he received theNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances".[7] Pauling's book has been considered "chemistry's most influential book of this century and its effective bible".[48] In the 30 years after its first edition was published in 1939, the book was cited more than 16,000 times. Even today, many modern scientific papers and articles in important journals cite this work, more than seventy years after the first publication.[49]
Part of Pauling's work on the nature of the chemical bond led to his introduction of the concept oforbital hybridization.[50] While it is normal to think of the electrons in an atom as being described byorbitals of types such ass andp, it turns out that in describing the bonding in molecules, it is better to construct functions that partake of some of the properties of each. Thus the one 2s and three 2p orbitals in a carbon atom can be (mathematically) 'mixed' or combined to make four equivalent orbitals (called sp3 hybrid orbitals), which would be the appropriate orbitals to describe carbon compounds such asmethane, or the 2s orbital may be combined with two of the 2p orbitals to make three equivalent orbitals (called sp2 hybrid orbitals), with the remaining 2p orbital unhybridized, which would be the appropriate orbitals to describe certainunsaturated carbon compounds such asethylene.[36]: 111–120 Other hybridization schemes are also found in other types of molecules.Another area which he explored was the relationship betweenionic bonding, where electrons are transferred between atoms, andcovalent bonding, where electrons are shared between atoms on an equal basis. Pauling showed that these were merely extremes, and that for most actual cases of bonding, thequantum-mechanicalwave function for a polar molecule AB is acombination of wave functions for covalent and ionic molecules.[36]: 66 Here Pauling'selectronegativity concept is particularly useful; the electronegativity difference between a pair of atoms will be the surest predictor of the degree of ionicity of the bond.[51]
The third of the topics that Pauling attacked under the overall heading of "the nature of the chemical bond" was the accounting of the structure ofaromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the prototype,benzene.[52] The best description of benzene had been made by the German chemistFriedrich Kekulé. He had treated it as a rapid interconversion between two structures, each with alternating single anddouble bonds, but with the double bonds of one structure in the locations where the single bonds were in the other. Pauling showed that a proper description based on quantum mechanics was an intermediate structure which was a blend of each. The structure was a superposition of structures rather than a rapid interconversion between them. The name "resonance" was later applied to this phenomenon.[53] In a sense, this phenomenon resembles those of hybridization and also polar bonding, both described above, because all three phenomena involve combining more than one electronic structure to achieve an intermediate result.[citation needed]
In 1929, Pauling publishedfive rules which help topredict and explaincrystal structures ofionic compounds.[54][36] These rules concern (1) the ratio of cation radius to anion radius, (2) the electrostatic bond strength, (3) the sharing of polyhedron corners, edges and faces, (4) crystals containing different cations, and (5) the rule of parsimony.[citation needed]
Pauling in 1941An alpha helix in ultra-high-resolution electron density contours, with O atoms in red, N atoms in blue, and hydrogen bonds as green dotted lines (PDB file 2NRL, 17–32)
In the mid-1930s, Pauling, strongly influenced by the biologically oriented funding priorities of the Rockefeller Foundation'sWarren Weaver, decided to strike out into new areas of interest.[55] Although Pauling's early interest had focused almost exclusively on inorganic molecular structures, he had occasionally thought about molecules of biological importance, in part because of Caltech's growing strength in biology. Pauling interacted with such great biologists asThomas Hunt Morgan,Theodosius Dobzhanski,Calvin Bridges andAlfred Sturtevant.[56] His early work in this area included studies of the structure ofhemoglobin with his studentCharles D. Coryell. He demonstrated that the hemoglobin molecule changes structure when it gains or loses anoxygen molecule.[56] As a result of this observation, he decided to conduct a more thorough study ofprotein structure in general. He returned to his earlier use of X-ray diffraction analysis. But protein structures were far less amenable to this technique than the crystalline minerals of his former work. The best X-ray pictures of proteins in the 1930s had been made by the British crystallographerWilliam Astbury, but when Pauling tried, in 1937, to account for Astbury's observations quantum mechanically, he could not.[57]
It took eleven years for Pauling to explain the problem: hismathematical analysis was correct, but Astbury's pictures were taken in such a way that the protein molecules were tilted from their expected positions. Pauling had formulated a model for the structure of hemoglobin in which atoms were arranged in ahelical pattern, and applied this idea to proteins in general.[citation needed]
Pauling then proposed thatdeoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was atriple helix;[60][61] his model contained several basic mistakes, including a proposal of neutral phosphate groups, an idea that conflicted with the acidity of DNA.Sir Lawrence Bragg had been disappointed that Pauling had won the race to find the alphahelix structure of proteins. Bragg's team had made a fundamental error in making their models of protein by not recognizing the planar nature of the peptide bond. When it was learned at theCavendish Laboratory that Pauling was working on molecular models of the structure of DNA,James Watson andFrancis Crick were allowed to make a molecular model of DNA. They later benefited from unpublished data fromMaurice Wilkins andRosalind Franklin atKing's College which showed evidence for a helix and planar base stacking along the helix axis. Early in 1953 Watson and Crick proposed a correct structure for the DNA double helix. Pauling later cited several reasons to explain how he had been misled about the structure of DNA, among them misleading density data and the lack of high quality X-ray diffraction photographs. Pauling described this situation as "the biggest disappointment in his life".[62]
During the time Pauling was researching the problem, Rosalind Franklin in England was creating the world's best images. They were key to Watson's and Crick's success. Pauling did not see them before devising his mistaken DNA structure, although his assistant Robert Corey did see at least some of them, while taking Pauling's place at a summer 1952 protein conference in England. Pauling had been prevented from attending because his passport was withheld by the State Department on suspicion that he had Communist sympathies. This led to the legend that Pauling missed the structure of DNA because of the politics of the day (this was at the start of theMcCarthy period in the United States). Politics did not play a critical role. Not only did Corey see the images at the time, but Pauling himself regained his passport within a few weeks and toured English laboratories well before writing his DNA paper. He had ample opportunity to visit Franklin's lab and see her work, but chose not to.[15]: 414–415 Despite these times, Pauling chose to move on from them and be thankful for the discoveries that he had already found.[62]
Pauling also studiedenzyme reactions and was among the first to point out that enzymes bring about reactions by stabilizing thetransition state of the reaction, a view which is central to understanding their mechanism of action.[63] He was also among the first scientists to postulate that the binding ofantibodies to antigens would be due to a complementarity between their structures.[64] Along the same lines, with the physicist turned biologistMax Delbrück, he wrote an early paper arguing thatDNA replication was likely to be due tocomplementarity, rather than similarity, as suggested by a few researchers. This was made clear in the model of the structure of DNA that Watson and Crick discovered.[65]
In November 1949, Pauling,Harvey Itano,S. J. Singer and Ibert Wells published "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease"[66] in the journalScience. It was the first proof of a human disease being caused by an abnormal protein, andsickle cell anemia became the first disease understood at the molecular level. (It was not, however, the first demonstration that variant forms of hemoglobin could be distinguished by electrophoresis, which had been shown several years earlier byMaud Menten and collaborators).[67] Usingelectrophoresis, they demonstrated that individuals withsickle cell disease have a modified form of hemoglobin in theirred blood cells, and that individuals withsickle cell trait have both the normal and abnormal forms of hemoglobin. This was the first demonstration causally linking an abnormal protein to a disease, and also the first demonstration thatMendelian inheritance determines the specific physical properties of proteins, not simply their presence or absence – the dawn ofmolecular genetics.[68]
His success with sickle cell anemia led Pauling to speculate that a number of other diseases, including mental illnesses such asschizophrenia, might result from flawed genetics. As chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and director of the Gates and Crellin Chemical Laboratories, he encouraged the hiring of researchers with a chemical-biomedical approach to mental illness, a direction not always popular with establishedCaltech chemists.[69]: 2
In 1951, Pauling gave a lecture entitled "Molecular Medicine".[70] In the late 1950s, he studied the role of enzymes in brain function, believing that mental illness may be partly caused by enzyme dysfunction. In the 1960s, as part of his interest in the effects of nuclear weapons, he investigated the role of mutations in evolution, proposing with his student Emile Zuckerkandl, the molecular evolutionary clock, the idea that mutations in proteins and DNA accumulate at a constant rate over time .[71]
On September 16, 1952, Pauling opened a new research notebook with the words "I have decided to attack the problem of the structure of nuclei." On October 15, 1965, Pauling published his Close-Packed Spheron Model of the atomic nucleus in two well respected journals,Science and theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[72][73] For nearly three decades, until his death in 1994, Pauling published numerous papers on his spheron cluster model.[72][74][75][76][77][78]
The basic idea behind Pauling's spheron model is that a nucleus can be viewed as a set of "clusters of nucleons". The basic nucleon clusters include thedeuteron [np],helion [pnp], andtriton [npn].Even–even nuclei are described as being composed of clusters ofalpha particles, as has often been done for light nuclei.[79] Pauling attempted to derive the shell structure of nuclei from pure geometrical considerations related toPlatonic solids rather than starting from an independent particle model as in the usualshell model. In an interview given in 1990 Pauling commented on his model:[80]
Now recently, I have been trying to determine detailed structures of atomic nuclei by analyzing the ground state and excited state vibrational bends, as observed experimentally. From reading the physics literature, Physical Review Letters and other journals, I know that many physicists are interested in atomic nuclei, but none of them, so far as I have been able to discover, has been attacking the problem in the same way that I attack it. So I just move along at my own speed, making calculations ...
Pauling had been practically apolitical untilWorld War II. At the beginning of theManhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer invited him to be in charge of the Chemistry division of the project. He declined, not wanting to uproot his family.[81]
Beckman Model 735 Dissolved O2 Analyzer, later model based on Pauling's design, 1968Beckman Model D Oxygen Meter, based on Pauling's design, with infant incubator, 1959
Pauling did, however, work on research for the military. He was a principal investigator on 14OSRD contracts.[82] TheNational Defense Research Committee called a meeting on October 3, 1940, wanting an instrument that could reliably measure oxygen content in a mixture of gases, so that they could measure oxygen conditions in submarines and airplanes. In response Pauling designed the Pauling oxygen meter, which was developed and manufactured byArnold O. Beckman, Inc. After the war, Beckman adapted the oxygen analyzers for use in incubators for premature babies.[83]: 180–186 [84]
In 1942, Pauling successfully submitted a proposal on "The Chemical Treatment of Protein Solutions in the Attempt to Find a Substitute for Human Serum for Transfusions". His project group, which included Joseph B. Koepfli and Dan H. Campbell, developed a possible replacement forhuman blood plasma intransfusions:polyoxy gelatin (Oxypolygelatin).[85][86]
Other wartime projects with more direct military applications included work on explosives, rocket propellants and the patent for an armor-piercing shell. In October 1948, Pauling, along withLee A. DuBridge,William A. Fowler,Max Mason, andBruce H. Sage, was awarded aPresidential Medal for Merit by PresidentHarry S. Truman. The citation credits him for his "imaginative mind", "brilliant success", and "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services".[87][88][89] In 1949, he served as president of theAmerican Chemical Society.[90]
The aftermath of theManhattan Project and his wife Ava's pacifism changed Pauling's life profoundly, and he became a peace activist.[citation needed]
In June 1945, a "May-Johnson Bill" began[91][92][93] that would become theAtomic Energy Act of 1946 (signed August 1, 1946). In November 1945, Pauling spoke to theIndependent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (ICCASP) onatomic weapons; shortly after, wife Ava and he accepted membership.[94] On January 21, 1946, the group met to discussacademic freedom, during which Pauling said, "There is, of course, always a threat to academic freedom – as there is to the other aspects of the freedom and rights of the individual, in the continued attacks which are made on this freedom, these rights, by the selfish, the overly ambitious, the misguided, the unscrupulous, who seek to oppress the great body of mankind in order that they themselves may profit – and we must always be on the alert against this threat, and must fight it with vigor when it becomes dangerous."[94]
Denial letter fromRuth B. Shipley, Chief Passport Division, Department of State to Linus Pauling on February 14, 1952
His political activism prompted theUS State Department to deny him a passport in 1952, when he was invited to speak at a scientific conference in London.[96][97] In a speech before theUS Senate on June 6 of the same year, SenatorWayne Morse publicly denounced the action of the State Department, and urged the Passport Division to reverse its decision. Pauling and his wife Ava were then issued a "limited passport" to attend the conference.[98][99] His full passport was restored in 1954, shortly before the ceremony inStockholm where he received his first Nobel Prize.[citation needed]
In February 1958, Pauling participated in a publicly televised debate with the atomic physicistEdward Teller about the actual probability of fallout causing mutations.[105] Later in 1958, Pauling publishedNo more war!, in which he not only called for an end to the testing of nuclear weapons but also an end to war itself. He proposed that a World Peace Research Organization be set up as part of the United Nations to "attack the problem of preserving the peace".[7]
Pauling also supported the work of the St. Louis Citizen's Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI).[102] This group, headed byBarry Commoner, Eric Reiss, M. W. Friedlander and John Fowler, organized a longitudinal study to measure radioactivestrontium-90 in thebaby teeth of children across North America. The "Baby Tooth Survey", published byLouise Reiss, demonstrated conclusively in 1961 that above-ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks in the form ofradioactive fallout spread primarily via milk from cows that had ingested contaminated grass.[106][107][108] The Committee for Nuclear Information is frequently credited for its significant contribution to supporting the test ban,[109] as is the ground-breaking research conducted by Reiss and the "Baby Tooth Survey".[110]
Public pressure and the frightening results of the CNI research led to a moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by thePartial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 byJohn F. Kennedy andNikita Khrushchev. On the day that the treaty went into force, October 10, 1963, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling theNobel Peace Prize for 1962. (No prize had previously been awarded for that year.)[111] They described him as "Linus Carl Pauling, who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts."[112] Pauling himself acknowledged his wife Ava's deep involvement in peace work, and regretted that she was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with him.[113]
Many of Pauling's critics, including scientists who appreciated the contributions that he had made in chemistry, disagreed with his political positions and saw him as a naïve spokesman forSoviet communism. In 1960, he was ordered to appear before theSenate Internal Security Subcommittee,[114] which termed him "the number one scientific name in virtually every major activity of the Communist peace offensive in this country".[115] A headline inLife magazine characterized his 1962 Nobel Prize as "A Weird Insult from Norway".[116][117]
Pauling was a frequent target of theNational Review magazine. In an article entitled "The Collaborators" in the magazine's July 17, 1962, issue, Pauling was referred to not only as a collaborator, but as a "fellow traveler" of proponents of Soviet-style communism. In 1963, Pauling sued the magazine, its publisherWilliam Rusher, and its editorWilliam F. Buckley, Jr for $1 million. He lost both his libel suits and the 1968 appeal (unlike his earlier 1963 libel case against theHearst Corporation), because in the meantime the landmark caseNew York Times Co. v. Sullivan had established theactual malice standard for libel lawsuits by public figures, requiring that not only falsehood but deliberate lying should be proved by the plaintiff in such cases.[118][119][120][121]
His peace activism, his frequent travels, and his enthusiastic expansion into chemical-biomedical research all aroused opposition at Caltech. In 1958, the Caltech Board of Trustees demanded that Pauling step down as chairman of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division.[69]: 2 Although he had retained tenure as a full professor, Pauling chose to resign from Caltech after he received the Nobel peace prize money. He spent the next three years at theCenter for the Study of Democratic Institutions (1963–1967).[20] In 1967, he moved to the University of California at San Diego, but remained there only briefly, leaving in 1969 in part because of political tensions with the Reagan-era board of regents.[69]: 3 From 1969 to 1974, he accepted a position as professor of chemistry at Stanford University.[34]
During the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson's policy of increasing America's involvement in the Vietnam War caused ananti-war movement that the Paulings joined with enthusiasm. Pauling denounced the war as unnecessary and unconstitutional. He made speeches, signed protest letters and communicated personally with the North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, and gave the lengthy written response to President Johnson. His efforts were ignored by the American government.[122]
Pauling supported a limited form ofeugenics by suggesting that human carriers of defective genes be given a compulsory visible mark – such as a forehead tattoo – to discourage potential mates with the same defect, in order to reduce the number of babies with diseases such assickle cell anemia.[131][132]
Pauling's book,How to Live Longer and Feel Better, advocated very high intake ofVitamin C.[133]
In 1941, at age 40, Pauling was diagnosed withBright's disease, a renal disease. Following the recommendations ofThomas Addis, who actively recruited Ava Helen Pauling as "nutritionist, cook, and eventually as deputy 'doctor'", Pauling believed he was able to control the disease with Addis's then-unusual low-protein salt-free diet and vitamin supplements.[134] Thus Pauling's initial – and intensely personal – exposure to the idea of treating disease with vitamin supplements was positive.[citation needed]
In 1965, Pauling readNiacin Therapy in Psychiatry byAbram Hoffer and theorized vitamins might have important biochemical effects unrelated to their prevention of associated deficiency diseases.[135] In 1968, Pauling published a brief paper inScience entitled "Orthomolecular psychiatry",[136] giving a name to the popular but controversialmegavitamin therapy movement of the 1970s, and advocating that "orthomolecular therapy, the provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents of the brain, may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients." Pauling coined the term "orthomolecular" to refer to the practice of varying the concentration of substances normally present in the body to prevent and treat disease. His ideas formed the basis oforthomolecular medicine, which is not generally practiced by conventional medical professionals and has been strongly criticized.[137][138]
In 1973, withArthur B. Robinson and another colleague, Pauling founded the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine in Menlo Park, California, which was soon renamed theLinus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. Pauling directed research on vitamin C, but also continued his theoretical work in chemistry and physics until his death. In his last years, he became especially interested in the possible role of vitamin C in preventingatherosclerosis and published three case reports on the use oflysine and vitamin C to relieveangina pectoris. During the 1990s, Pauling put forward a comprehensive plan for the treatment of heart disease using lysine and vitamin C. In 1996, a website was created expounding Pauling's treatment which it referred to as Pauling Therapy. Proponents of Pauling Therapy believe that heart disease can be treated and even cured using only lysine and Vitamin C and without drugs or heart operations.[139]
Pauling's work onvitamin C in his later years generated much controversy. He was first introduced to the concept of high-dose vitamin C by biochemistIrwin Stone in 1966. After becoming convinced of its worth, Pauling took 3 grams of vitamin C every day to preventcolds.[13] Excited by his own perceived results, he researched the clinical literature and publishedVitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970. He began a long clinical collaboration with the British cancer surgeonEwan Cameron in 1971 on the use of intravenous and oral vitamin C as cancer therapy for terminal patients.[140] Cameron and Pauling wrote many technical papers and a popular book,Cancer and Vitamin C, that discussed their observations. Pauling made vitamin C popular with the public[141] and eventually published two studies of a group of 100 allegedlyterminal patients that claimed vitamin C increased survival by as much as four times compared to untreated patients.[142][143]
A re-evaluation of the claims in 1982 found that the patient groups were not actually comparable, with the vitamin C group being less sick on entry to the study, and judged to be "terminal" much earlier than the comparison group.[144] Later clinical trials conducted by theMayo Clinic led by oncologistDr. Edward T. Creagan also concluded that high-dose (10,000 mg) vitamin C was no better thanplacebo at treating cancer and that there was no benefit to high-dose vitamin C.[145][146][147] The failure of the clinical trials to demonstrate any benefit resulted in the conclusion that vitamin C was not effective in treating cancer; the medical establishment concluded that his claims that vitamin C could prevent colds or treat cancer werequackery.[13][148] Pauling denounced the conclusions of these studies and handling of the final study as "fraud and deliberate misrepresentation",[149][150] and criticized the studies for using oral, rather thanintravenous vitamin C[151] (which was the dosing method used for the first ten days of Pauling's original study[148]). Pauling also criticised the Mayo Clinic studies because the controls were taking vitamin C during the trial, and because the duration of the treatment with vitamin C was short; Pauling advocated continued high-dose vitamin C for the rest of the cancer patient's life whereas the Mayo Clinic patients in the second trial were treated with vitamin C for a median of 2.5 months.[152]
Ultimately the negative findings of the Mayo Clinic studies ended general interest in vitamin C as a treatment for cancer.[150] Despite this, Pauling continued to promote vitamin C for treating cancer and the common cold, working withThe Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential to use vitamin C in the treatment of brain-injured children.[153] He later collaborated with the Canadian physicianAbram Hoffer on a micronutrient regime, including high-dose vitamin C, as adjunctive cancer therapy.[154] A 2009 review also noted differences between the studies, such as the Mayo Clinic not using intravenous Vitamin C, and suggested further studies into the role of vitamin C when given intravenously.[155] Results from most clinical trials suggest that modest vitamin C supplementation alone or with other nutrients offers no benefit in the prevention of cancer.[156][157]
The Pauling children at a gathering in celebration of the 1954 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm, Sweden. Seated from left: Linus Pauling, Jr., Peter Pauling and Linda Pauling. Standing from left: an unidentified person, and Crellin Pauling
On January 30, 1960, Pauling and his wife were using a cabin about 80 miles (130 km) south ofMonterey, California, and he decided to go for a walk on a coastal trail. He got lost and tried to climb the rocky cliff, but reached a large overhanging rock about 300 feet (90 m) above the ocean. He decided it was safest to stay there, and meanwhile he was reported missing. He spent a sleepless night on the cliff before being found after almost 24 hours.[166]
Pauling died ofprostate cancer on August 19, 1994, at 19:20 at home inBig Sur, California.[12] He was 93 years old.[167] A grave marker for Pauling was placed in Oswego Pioneer Cemetery inLake Oswego, Oregon by his sister Pauline, but Pauling's ashes, along with those of his wife, were not buried there until 2005.[168]
Pauling's discoveries led to decisive contributions in a diverse array of areas including around 350 publications in the fields of quantum mechanics, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, protein structure, molecular biology, and medicine.[169][170]
His work on chemical bonding marks him as one of the founders of modernquantum chemistry.[9]The Nature of the Chemical Bond was the standard work for many years,[171] and concepts likehybridization andelectronegativity remain part of standard chemistry textbooks. While hisvalence bond approach fell short of accounting quantitatively for some of the characteristics of molecules, such as the color oforganometallic complexes, and would later be eclipsed by themolecular orbital theory ofRobert Mulliken, valence bond theory still competes, in its modern form, with molecular orbital theory anddensity functional theory (DFT) as a way of describing chemical phenomena.[172] Pauling's work on crystal structure contributed significantly to the prediction and elucidation of the structures of complex minerals and compounds.[28]: 80–81 His discovery of the alpha helix and beta sheet is a fundamental foundation for the study of protein structure.[59]
Pauling's 1951 publication with Robert B. Corey and H. R. Branson, "The Structure of Proteins: Two Hydrogen-Bonded Helical Configurations of the Polypeptide Chain," was a key early finding in the then newly emerging field of molecular biology. This publication was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society presented to the department of chemistry, Caltech, in 2017.[174][175]
Oregon State University completed construction of the $77 million, 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) Linus Pauling Science Center in the late 2000s, now housing the bulk of Oregon State's chemistry classrooms, labs, and instruments.[176]
On March 6, 2008, theUnited States Postal Service released a 41 cent stamp honoring Pauling designed by artistVictor Stabin.[177][178] His description reads: "A remarkably versatile scientist, structural chemist Linus Pauling (1901–1994) won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the nature of the chemical bond linking atoms into molecules. His work in establishing the field of molecular biology; his studies of hemoglobin led to the classification of sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease."[68] The other scientists on this sheet of stamps includedGerty Cori, biochemist,Edwin Hubble, astronomer, andJohn Bardeen, physicist.[178]
By proclamation of Gov.John Kitzhaber in the state of Oregon, February 28 has been named "Linus Pauling Day".[180] The Linus Pauling Institute still exists, but moved in 1996 from Palo Alto, California, to Corvallis, Oregon, where it is part of the Linus Pauling Science Center atOregon State University.[181][182][183]The Valley Library Special Collections at Oregon State University contain the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, including digitized versions of Pauling's forty-six research notebooks.[180]
In 1986, Caltech commemorated Linus Pauling with a symposium and lectureship.[184] The Pauling Lecture series at Caltech began in 1989 with a lecture by Pauling himself. The Caltech Chemistry Department renamed room 22 of Gates Hall the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall, since Pauling spent so much time there.[185]
Other places named after Pauling include Pauling Street in Foothill Ranch, California;[186] Linus Pauling Drive in Hercules, California; Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Hall atSoka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California;[187] Linus Pauling Middle School in Corvallis, Oregon;[188] andPauling Field, a small airfield located in Condon, Oregon, where Pauling spent his youth.[189] There is a psychedelic rock band in Houston, Texas, namedThe Linus Pauling Quartet.[190]
The asteroid4674 Pauling in the inner asteroid belt, discovered byEleanor F. Helin, was named after Linus Pauling in 1991, on his 90th birthday.[191]
Nobel laureatePeter Agre has said that Linus Pauling inspired him.[194]
In 2010,Pacific Northwest National Laboratory named its distinguished postdoctoral program in his honor, as the Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.[195]
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—— (1939).The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals.Cornell University Press.
—— (1947).General Chemistry: An Introduction to Descriptive Chemistry and Modern Chemical Theory.Freeman. Greatly revised and expanded in 1947, 1953, and 1970. Reprinted byDover Publications in 1988.
Cameron, E.; —— (1993).Cancer and Vitamin C: A Discussion of the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment of Cancer With Special Reference to the Value of Vitamin C. Camino.ISBN978-0-940159-21-1.
—— (1998).Linus Pauling On Peace: A Scientist Speaks Out on Humanism and World Survival. Rising Star Press.ISBN978-0-933670-03-7.
—— (1931). "The Nature of the Chemical Bond. I. Application of Results Obtained from the Quantum Mechanics and from a Theory of Paramagnetic Susceptibility to the Structure of Molecules".Journal of the American Chemical Society.53 (4):1367–1400.Bibcode:1931JAChS..53.1367P.doi:10.1021/ja01355a027.
—— (1931). "The Nature of the Chemical Bond. II. The One-Electron Bond and the Three-Electron Bond".Journal of the American Chemical Society.53 (9):3225–3237.Bibcode:1931JAChS..53.3225P.doi:10.1021/ja01360a004.
—— (1932). "The Nature of the Chemical Bond. III. The Transition from One Extreme Bond Type to Another".Journal of the American Chemical Society.54 (3):988–1003.Bibcode:1932JAChS..54..988P.doi:10.1021/ja01342a022.
—— (1932). "The Nature of the Chemical Bond. IV. The Energy of Single Bonds and the Relative Electronegativity of Atoms".Journal of the American Chemical Society.54 (9):3570–3582.Bibcode:1932JAChS..54.3570P.doi:10.1021/ja01348a011.
—— (1935). "The Structure and Entropy of Ice and of Other Crystals with Some Randomness of Atomic Arrangement".Journal of the American Chemical Society.57 (12):2680–2684.Bibcode:1935JAChS..57.2680P.doi:10.1021/ja01315a102.
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^"Hiroshima".Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement. Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. Retrieved2015-05-27.
^Thackray, Arnold & Minor Myers, Jr. (2000).Arnold O. Beckman : one hundred years of excellence. foreword by James D. Watson. Philadelphia, Pa.: Chemical Heritage Foundation.ISBN978-0-941901-23-9.
^Hermann, Armin (1979).The new physics: the route into the atomic age: in memory of Albert Einstein, Max von Laue, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Inter Nationes. p. 130.
^Reiss, Louise Zibold (1961-11-24). "Strontium-90 Absorption by Deciduous Teeth: Analysis of teeth provides a practicable method of monitoring strontium-90 uptake by human populations".Science.134 (3491):1669–1673.doi:10.1126/science.134.3491.1669.PMID14491339.
^Hager, Thomas (2007-11-29)."Strontium-90". Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections. Retrieved2007-12-13.
^Kovac, Jeffrey (1999). "A weird insult from Norway: Linus Pauling as public intellectual".Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal.82 (1/2):91–106.JSTOR41178914.
^Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University Libraries (2015)."Eugenics for Alleviating Human Suffering".It's in the Blood! A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin and Sickle Cell Anemia. Retrieved2020-05-30.
^Pauling, Linus (1987).How to Live Longer and Feel Better (1 ed.). New York: Avon Books.OL18076125M.
^Nicolle, Lorraine; Beirne, Ann Woodriff, eds. (2010).Biochemical imbalances in disease a practitioner's handbook. London: Singing Dragon. p. 27.ISBN978-0-85701-028-5.
^Cassileth, Barrie R. (1998).The alternative medicine handbook: the complete reference guide to alternative and complementary therapies. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 67.ISBN978-0-393-04566-6.
^DeWys, WD (1982). "How to evaluate a new treatment for cancer".Your Patient and Cancer.2 (5):31–36.
^Creagan, ET; Moertel, CG; O'Fallon, JR (September 1979). "Failure of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial".The New England Journal of Medicine.301 (13):687–90.doi:10.1056/NEJM197909273011303.PMID384241.
^Moertel, CG; Fleming, TR; Creagan, ET; Rubin, J; O'Connell, MJ; Ames, MM (January 1985). "High-dose vitamin C versus placebo in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer who have had no prior chemotherapy. A randomized double-blind comparison".The New England Journal of Medicine.312 (3):137–41.doi:10.1056/NEJM198501173120301.PMID3880867.
^Tschetter, L; et al. (1983). "A community-based study of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in patients with advanced cancer".Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.2: 92.
^Ohno, S; Ohno, Y; Suzuki, N; Soma, G; Inoue, M (2009). "High-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer".Anticancer Research.29 (3):809–15.PMID19414313.
^"Linus Pauling".Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Archived fromthe original on 2018-10-16. Retrieved2015-05-27.
^Pauling, Linus; Ikeda, Daisaku (1992).A Lifelong Quest for Peace: A Dialogue. Jones & Bartlett. p. 22.ISBN978-0-86720-277-9....I [Pauling] am not, however, militant in my atheism. The great English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac is a militant atheist. I suppose he is interested in arguing about the existence of God. I am not. It was once quipped that there is no God and Dirac is his prophet.
^"Dr. Pauling Rescued, On a Sea Cliff 24 Hrs"(clipping).scarc.library.oregonstate.edu. Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University Libraries: New York Herald Tribune. 1960-02-01. Retrieved2018-04-22.
^Hoffmann, Roald; Shaik, Sason; Hiberty, Philippe C. (2003). "A Conversation on VB vs MO Theory: A Never-Ending Rivalry?".Acc Chem Res.36 (10):750–6.doi:10.1021/ar030162a.PMID14567708.
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Zannos, Susan.Linus Pauling and the chemical bond (2004), 48pponline, for secondary schools
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