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Linus Pauling

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Chemists

   CAPTION: Linus Pauling

   Pauling lecturing at Osaka University in 1955.
   Pauling lecturing at Osaka University in 1955.
         Born       February 28, 1901
                    Portland, Oregon, USA
         Died       August 19, 1994
                    Big Sur, California, USA
      Residence     USA
     Nationality    American
        Field       Quantum chemistry
                    Biochemistry
     Institution    Caltech, UCSD, Stanford
      Alma Mater    Oregon Agricultural College, Caltech
   Academic Advisor Roscoe G. Dickinson
   Notable Students Jerry Donohue
                    Martin Karplus
      Known for     Elucidating the nature of chemical bonds and the structures
                    of molecules.
                    Advocating nuclear disarmament.
    Notable Prizes  Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1954)
                    Nobel Peace Prize (1962)
       Religion     Raised Lutheran, Unitarian Universalist atheist as an adult
   Richard Chase Tolman taught Pauling quantum mechanics after his PhD and
   was thus an important influence.

   Linus Carl Pauling ( February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was an
   American quantum chemist and biochemist. (He called himself, as well, a
   crystallographer, molecular biologist, and medical researcher.) He is
   widely regarded as the premier chemist of the twentieth century.

   Pauling pioneered the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry
   (quantum mechanics can, in principle, describe all of chemistry and
   molecular biology), and in 1954 was awarded the Nobel Prize in
   chemistry for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He also
   made important contributions to crystal and protein structure
   determination, and was one of the founders of molecular biology. He
   came near to discovering the "double helix," the ultrastructure of DNA,
   when Watson and Crick made the discovery in 1953. Pauling is noted as a
   versatile scholar for his expertise in inorganic chemistry, organic
   chemistry, metallurgy, immunology, anesthesiology, psychology, debate,
   radioactive decay, and the aftermath of nuclear warfare, in addition to
   quantum mechanics and molecular biology.

   Pauling received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against
   above-ground nuclear testing, and is the only person to win two
   unshared Nobel prizes - that is, none of the prizes were shared with
   another recipient/s. The other people who have received two Nobel
   prizes are Marie Curie (physics and chemistry), John Bardeen (physics)
   and Frederick Sanger (chemistry).

   Later in life, he became an advocate for greatly increased consumption
   of vitamin C and other nutrients. He generalized his ideas to define
   orthomolecular medicine, which is still regarded as unorthodox by
   conventional medicine. He popularized his concepts, analyses, research
   and insights in several successful but controversial books centered
   around vitamin C and orthomolecular medicine.

Early life

   Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon to Herman Henry William Pauling
   (1876-1910) of Concordia, Missouri; and Lucy Isabelle Darling
   (1881-1926) of Lonerock, Oregon. Herman was an unsuccessful druggist
   who moved his family to and from a number of different cities in Oregon
   from 1903 to 1909, finally returning to Portland that year. Herman died
   in 1910 of a perforated ulcer, and Isabelle was left to care for Linus
   and two younger siblings: Pauline Pauling (1901-2003) who married
   Thomas Joseph Ney (1881-1963) of Millville, New Jersey; and Frances
   Lucille Pauling (1904-?).

   Pauling was a voracious reader as a child, and at one point his father
   wrote a letter to a local paper inviting suggestions of additional
   books that would occupy his time. A friend, Lloyd Jeffress, had a small
   chemistry laboratory in his bedroom when Pauling was in grammar school,
   and Jeffress' laboratory experiments inspired Pauling to plan to become
   a chemical engineer.

   In high school, Pauling continued to experiment in chemistry, borrowing
   much of the equipment and materials from an abandoned steel company
   near which his grandfather worked as a night watchman.

   Pauling failed to take some required American history courses and did
   not qualify for his high school diploma. The school awarded him the
   diploma 45 years later only after he had won two Nobel Prizes.
     * Father: Herman Henry William Pauling (druggist, b. Missouri)
     * Mother: Lucy Isabelle Darling (b. Oregon)
     * Wife: Ava Helen Miller (b. Beaver Creek OR, m. 1923)
     * Son: Linus Carl Pauling, Jr. (b. 1925)
     * Son: Peter Jeffress Pauling (b. 1931)
     * Daughter: Linda Helen Pauling (b. 1932)
     * Son: Edward Crellin Pauling (b. 1937)

College and university

   Pauling graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1922.
   Enlarge
   Pauling graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1922.

   In 1917, Pauling entered the Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in
   Corvallis, now Oregon State University. While at OAC, Pauling was a
   member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Because of financial needs, he
   had to work full-time while attending a full schedule of classes. After
   his second year, he planned to take a job in Portland to help support
   his mother, but the college offered him a position teaching
   quantitative analysis (a course Pauling had just finished taking as a
   student). This allowed him to continue his studies at OAC.

   In his last two years at OAC, Pauling became aware of the work of
   Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir on the electronic structure of
   atoms and their bonding to form molecules. He decided to focus his
   research on how the physical and chemical 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.

   In 1922, Pauling graduated from OAC with a degree in chemical
   engineering and went to graduate school at the California Institute of
   Technology ("Caltech") in Pasadena, California under the guidance of
   Roscoe G. Dickinson. His graduate research involved the use of X-ray
   diffraction to determine crystal structure. He published seven papers
   on the crystal structure of minerals while he was at Caltech. He
   received his Ph. D. in physical chemistry and mathematical physics,
   summa cum laude, in 1925.

Marriage

   During his senior year, Linus Pauling taught junior classes in
   "Chemistry for Home Economic Majors" . In one of these classes he met
   Ava Helen Miller, whom he married on June 17, 1923; they had three sons
   (Crellin, Linus, Peter) and a daughter (Linda).

Early scientific career

   Pauling later traveled to Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship to study
   under German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld in Munich, Danish physicist
   Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, and Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in
   Zürich. All three were experts working in the new field of quantum
   mechanics and other branches of physics. While he was studying at the
   Oregon Agricultural College, Pauling was first exposed to the idea of
   quantum theory and quantum mechanics. He became interested in seeing
   how it might help in the understanding of his chosen field of interest,
   the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. In Europe, Pauling was
   also exposed to one of the first quantum mechanical analyses of bonding
   in the hydrogen molecule, done by Walter Heitler and Fritz London.
   Pauling devoted the two years of his European trip to this work and
   decided to make this 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. In
   1927, he took a new position as an assistant professor at Caltech in
   theoretical chemistry.

   Pauling began his faculty career at Caltech with a very productive five
   years, both continuing with his X-ray crystal studies and performing
   quantum mechanical calculations on atoms and molecules. He published
   approximately fifty papers in those five years and created five rules
   now known as Pauling's Rules. In 1929, he was promoted to associate
   professor, and in 1930, to full professor. By 1931, the American
   Chemical Society awarded Pauling the Langmuir Prize for the most
   significant work in pure science by a person 30 years of age or
   younger. In 1932, Pauling published what he regarded as his most
   important paper, in which he first laid out the concept of
   hybridization of atomic orbitals and analyzed the tetravalency of the
   carbon atom.

   At Caltech, Pauling struck a close friendship with theoretical
   physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who was spending part of his research and
   teaching schedule away from Berkeley at Caltech every year. 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. However, this relationship soured when Pauling
   began to suspect that Oppenheimer was probably becoming too close to
   Pauling's wife, Ava Helen. Once, when Pauling was at work, Oppenheimer
   had come to their place and blurted out an invitation to Ava Helen to
   join him on a tryst to Mexico. Although she flatly refused, she
   reported this incident to Pauling. This, and her apparent nonchalance
   about the incident, disquieted him, and he immediately cut off his
   relationship with the Berkeley professor, leading to a coolness between
   them that would last their lives, although Oppenheimer did invite
   Pauling to be the head of the Chemistry Division of the atomic bomb
   project. (Pauling refused, saying that he was a pacifist).

   In the summer of 1930, Pauling made another European trip, learning
   about the use of electrons in diffraction studies similar to the ones
   he had performed with X-rays. With a student of his, L. O. Brockway, he
   built an electron diffraction instrument at Caltech and used it to
   study the molecular structure of a large number of chemical substances.

   Linus Pauling introduced the concept of electronegativity in 1932.
   Using the various properties of molecules, such as the energy required
   to break bonds and the dipole moments of molecules, he established a
   scale and an associated numerical value for most of the elements, the
   Pauling Electronegativity Scale, which is useful in predicting the
   nature of bonds between atoms in molecules.

Work on the nature of the chemical bond

   In the 1930s he began publishing papers on the nature of the chemical
   bond, leading to his famous textbook on the subject published in 1939.
   It is based primarily on his work in this area that he received the
   Nobel 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". Pauling summarized his work on the
   chemical bond in The Nature of the Chemical Bond, one of the most
   influential chemistry books ever published. In the 30 years since its
   first edition was published in 1939, the book had been cited more than
   16,000 times. Even today, many modern scientific papers and articles in
   important journals cite this work, more than half a century after first
   publication.

   Part of Pauling's work on the nature of the chemical bond led to his
   introduction of the concept of orbital hybridization. While it is
   normal to think of the electrons in an atom as being described by
   orbitals of types such as s, p, etc., 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 combined to make four equivalent
   orbitals (called sp^3 hybrid orbitals), which would be the appropriate
   orbitals to describe carbon compounds such as methane, or the 2s
   orbital may be combined with two of the 2p orbitals to make three
   equivalent orbitals (called sp^2 hybrid orbitals), with the remaining
   2p orbital unhybridized, which would be the appropriate orbitals to
   describe certain unsaturated carbon compounds such as ethylene. Other
   hybridization schemes are also found in other types of molecules.

   Another area which he explored was the relationship between ionic
   bonding, where electrons are transferred between atoms, and covalent
   bonding where electrons are shared between atoms on an equal basis.
   Pauling showed that these were merely extremes, between which most
   actual cases of bonding fall. It was here especially that Pauling's
   electronegativity concept was particularly useful; the
   electronegativity difference between a pair of atoms will be the surest
   predictor of the degree of ionicity of the bond.

   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 of aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the prototype,
   benzene. The best description of benzene had been made by the German
   chemist Friedrich Kekulé. He had treated it as a rapid interconversion
   between two structures, each with alternating single and double 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
   containing some aspects 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. In a sense, this
   phenomenon resembles that of hybridization, described earlier, because
   it involves combining more than one electronic structure to achieve an
   intermediate result.

Work on structure of the atomic nucleus

   On September 16, 1952, Linus Pauling opened a new research notebook
   with these words "I have decided to attack the problem of the structure
   of nuclei" (see his actual notes at Oregon State Special Collections).
   On October 15, 1965, Pauling published his Close-Packed Spheron Model
   of the atomic nucleus in two well respected journals, Science, and
   Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. For nearly three decades, until his death in
   1994, Pauling published numerous papers on his spheron cluster model.

   No modern text books on nuclear physics discuss the Pauling Spheron
   Model of the Atomic Nucleus, yet it provides a unique perspective, well
   published in the leading journals of science, on how fundamental
   "clusters of nucleons" can form shell structure in agreement with
   recognized theory of quantum mechanics. Pauling was well versed in
   quantum mechanics--he coauthored one of the first textbooks on the
   subject (Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to
   Chemistry by Linus Pauling, E. Bright Wilson, 1935). The Pauling
   spheron nucleon clusters include the deuteron[NP], helion [PNP], and
   triton [NPN]. Even-even nuclei were described as being composed of
   clusters of alpha particles, as has often been done for light nuclei.
   He made an effort to derive the shell structure of nuclei from the
   Platonic solids rather than starting from an independent particle model
   as in the usual shell model. It was sometimes said at that time that
   this work received more attention than it would have if it had been
   done by a less famous person, but more likely Pauling was taking a
   unique approach to understanding the relatively new discovery in the
   late 1940's of Maria Goeppert-Mayer of structure within the nucleus. In
   an interview Pauling commended on his model..."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..."

Work on biological molecules

   Double Helix
   Discovery
   William Astbury
   Oswald Avery
   Francis Crick
   Erwin Chargaff
   Max Delbrück
   Jerry Donohue
   Rosalind Franklin
   Raymond Gosling
   Phoebus Levene
   Linus Pauling
   Sir John Randall
   Erwin Schrödinger
   Alec Stokes
   James Watson
   Maurice Wilkins
   Herbert Wilson

   In the mid-1930s, Pauling decided to strike out into new areas of
   interest. Early in his career, he had mentioned a lack of interest in
   studying molecules of biological importance. But as Caltech was
   developing a new strength in biology, and Pauling interacted with such
   great biologists as Thomas Hunt Morgan, Theodosius Dobzhanski, Calvin
   Bridges, and Alfred Sturtevant, he started to become interested in
   studying biological molecules. His first work in this area involved the
   structure of hemoglobin. He was able to demonstrate that the hemoglobin
   molecule changes structure when it gains or loses an oxygen atom. As a
   result of this observation, he decided to make a more thorough study of
   protein 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 crystallographer William Astbury, but when Pauling tried, in
   1937, to account for Astbury's observations quantum mechanically, he
   could not.

   It took eleven years for Pauling to explain the problem: his
   mathematical 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 a helical pattern, and
   applied this idea to proteins in general.

   In 1951, based on the structures of amino acids and peptides and the
   planarity of the peptide bond, Pauling and colleagues correctly
   proposed the alpha helix and beta sheet as the primary structural
   motifs in protein secondary structure. This work exemplified his
   ability to think unconventionally; central to the structure was the
   unorthodox assumption that one turn of the helix may well contain a
   non-integral number of amino acid residues.

   Pauling then suggested a helical structure for deoxyribonucleic acid
   (DNA) but in this structure he uncharacteristically made several basic
   mistakes, including making the phosphate group neutral, a fact which
   would no longer represent DNA as an acid . Sir Lawrence Bragg had been
   disappointed that Pauling had won the race to find the alpha helix.
   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 the Cavendish Laboratory that Pauling was working on
   molecular models of the structure of DNA, Watson and Crick were allowed
   to make a molecular model of DNA using unpublished data from Maurice
   Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College. Early in 1953 James D.
   Watson and Francis Crick proposed a correct structure for the DNA
   double helix. One of the impediments facing Pauling in this work was
   that he did not have access to the high quality X-ray diffraction
   photographs of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin, which Watson and Crick
   had seen. He planned to attend a conference in England, where he might
   have been shown the photos, but he could not do so because his passport
   was withheld at the time by the State Department, on suspicions that he
   had Communist sympathies. This was at the start of the McCarthy period
   in the United States.

   Pauling also studied enzyme reactions and was among the first ones to
   point out that enzymes bring about reactions by stabilizing the
   transition state of the reaction, a view which is central to
   understanding their mechanism of action. He was also among the first
   scientists to postulate that the binding of antibodies to antigens
   would be due to a complementarity between their structures. Along the
   same lines, with the physicist turned biologist Max Delbruck, he wrote
   an early paper arguing that DNA replication was likely to be due to
   complementarity, 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.

Molecular genetics

   In November 1949 Linus Pauling, Harvey Itano, S. J. Singer and Ibert
   Wells published in the journal Science the first proof that a human
   disease was associated with a change in a specific protein. Using
   electrophoresis, they demonstrated that individuals with sickle cell
   disease had a modified hemoglobin in their red blood cells, and that
   individuals with the sickle cell trait, upon electrophoresis, had both
   the normal and abnormal hemoglobin. This was the first demonstration of
   a specific protein associated with a human disease, and the Mendelian
   inheritance of a change in that specific protein - the dawn of
   molecular genetics.

Activism

   Pauling had been practically apolitical until World War II, but the war
   changed his life profoundly, and he became a peace activist. During the
   beginning of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer invited him to
   be in charge of the Chemistry division of the project, but he declined,
   saying that he was a pacifist. In 1946 he joined the Emergency
   Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by Albert Einstein, whose
   mission was to warn the public of the dangers associated with the
   development of nuclear weapons. His political activism prompted the
   U.S. State Department to deny him a passport in 1952, when he was
   invited to speak at a scientific conference in London. His passport was
   restored in 1954, shortly before the ceremony in Stockholm where he
   received his first Nobel Prize. Joining Einstein, Bertrand Russell and
   8 other leading scientists and intellectuals he signed the
   Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.

   In 1957, Pauling began a petition drive in cooperation with biologist
   Barry Commoner, who had studied radioactive strontium-90 in the baby
   teeth of children across North America and concluded that above-ground
   nuclear testing posed public health risks in the form of radioactive
   fallout. He also participated in a public debate with the atomic
   physicist Edward Teller about the actual probability of fallout causing
   mutations. In 1958, Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations
   with a petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an
   end to nuclear-weapon testing. Public pressure subsequently led to a
   moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by the
   Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by John F. Kennedy and Nikita
   Khrushchev. On the day that the treaty went into force, the Nobel Prize
   Committee awarded Pauling the Nobel Peace Prize, describing 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." Interestingly,
   the Caltech Chemistry Department, wary of his political views, did not
   even formally congratulate him. However, the Biology Department did
   throw him a small party, showing they were more appreciative and
   sympathetic toward his work on radiation mutation.

   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 for Soviet
   communism. He was ordered to appear before the Senate Internal Security
   Subcommittee, which termed him "the number one scientific name in
   virtually every major activity of the Communist peace offensive in this
   country." An extraordinary headline in Life magazine characterized his
   1962 Nobel Prize as "A Weird Insult from Norway." Pauling was awarded
   the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in 1970.

Work in the development of the electric car

   Pauling contributed to the development of the first modern electric car
   - the Henney Kilowatt.
   Enlarge
   Pauling contributed to the development of the first modern electric car
   - the Henney Kilowatt.

   In the late 1950s, Pauling became concerned with the problem of air
   pollution - particularly with the growing smog problem in Los Angeles.
   At the time, most scientists believed that the smog was due to chemical
   plants and refineries - not gasoline engine exhaust. Pauling worked
   with Arie Haagen-Smit and others at Caltech to show that smog was a
   product of automobile pollution instead of factory pollution. Shortly
   after this discovery, Pauling began work to develop a practical and
   affordable electric car. He joined forces with the engineers at the
   Eureka Williams company in the development of the Henney Kilowatt - the
   first speed-controlled electric car. After researching the
   electrophysics underlying the initial Kilowatt propulsion system,
   Pauling determined that traditional lead-acid batteries would not
   provide the power necessary to give electric cars the performance
   necessary to rival traditional gasoline powered cars. Pauling
   accurately predicted that the low top speed and the short range of the
   Henney Kilowatt would make them impractical and unpopular. Pauling
   insisted on making the car more practical before releasing it to the
   public, and recommended that the project be discontinued until the
   appropriate battery was available commercially. Unfortunately, Eureka
   Williams Company insisted that the production plans for the car proceed
   - leading to dismal sales.

Work in alternative medicine

   In 1941, at age 40, Pauling was diagnosed with a serious form of
   Bright’s disease, a fatal renal disease. Experts believed then that
   Bright's disease was untreatable. With the help of Dr. Thomas Addis at
   Stanford, Pauling was able to control the disease with Addis' then
   unusual, low protein, salt-free diet. Addis also prescribed vitamins
   and minerals for all his patients.

   In 1951, Pauling gave a lecture entitled, "Molecular Medicine" . In the
   late 1950s, Pauling worked on the role of enzymes in brain function,
   believing that mental illness may be partly caused by enzyme
   dysfunction. It wasn't until he read " Niacin Therapy in Psychiatry" by
   Abram Hoffer in 1965 that he realized that vitamins might have
   important biochemical effects unrelated to their prevention of
   associated deficiency diseases. Pauling published a brief paper, "
   Orthomolecular Psychiatry", in the journal Science in 1968 ( PMID
   5641253) that gave name and principle to the popular but controversial
   megavitamin therapy movement of the 1970s. 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 of orthomolecular medicine, which
   has been bitterly assailed by a number of critics associated with
   conventional 20th century medicine.

   Pauling's work on vitamin C in his later years generated controversy
   and was regarded by some adversaries in the field of medicine as
   outright quackery. He was first introduced to the concept of high-dose
   vitamin C by biochemist Irwin Stone in 1966 and began taking several
   grams every day to prevent colds. Excited by the results, he researched
   the clinical literature and published "Vitamin C and the Common Cold"
   in 1970. He began a long clinical collaboration with the British cancer
   surgeon, Ewan Cameron, in 1971 on the use of intravenous and oral
   vitamin C as cancer therapy for terminal patients. Cameron and Pauling
   wrote many technical papers and a popular book, "Cancer and Vitamin C",
   that discussed their observations. After three disputed trials at the
   Mayo Clinic, Pauling, known for his blunt precision and candor ,
   pointedly denounced Moertel's conclusions and handling of the final
   study as "fraud and deliberate misrepresentation" , Pauling published
   critiques of the second Mayo-Moertel cancer trial's flaws over several
   years as he was able to slowly unearth some of the trial's undisclosed
   details. However, the wave of adverse publicity generated by Moertel
   and the media effectively undercut Pauling's credibility and his
   vitamin C work for a generation. Always precariously perched since his
   molecular biologically inspired crusade to stop atmospheric nuclear
   testing in the 1950s , the 1985 Mayo-Moertel confrontation left Pauling
   isolated from his institutional funding sources, academic support and a
   bemused public. He later collaborated with the Canadian physician,
   Abram Hoffer, on a micronutrient regimen, including high-dose vitamin
   C, as adjunctive cancer therapy.

   As of 2005, some physicians have called for a more careful reassessment
   of vitamin C , especially intravenous vitamin C, in cancer treatment.
   The selective toxicity of vitamin C for cancer cells has been
   demonstrated repeatedly , . The Proceedings of the National Academy of
   Sciences recently published a paper demonstrating vitamin C killing
   cancer cells.

   With two colleagues, Pauling founded the Institute of Orthomolecular
   Medicine in Menlo Park, California, in 1973, which was soon renamed the
   Linus 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 from prostate cancer in 1994. In
   his last years, he became especially interested in the possible role of
   vitamin C in preventing atherosclerosis and published three case
   reports on the use of lysine and vitamin C to relieve angina pectoris.
   In 1996, the Linus Pauling Institute moved from Palo Alto, California,
   to Corvallis, Oregon, to become part of Oregon State University, where
   it continues to conduct research on micronutrients, phytochemicals
   (chemicals from plants), and other constituents of the diet in
   preventing and treating disease.

Pauling's legacy

   Pauling's contribution to science is held by many in the utmost regard.
   He was included in a list of the 20 greatest scientists of all time by
   the British magazine New Scientist, with Albert Einstein being the only
   other scientist from the twentieth century on the list. Gautam R.
   Desiraju, the author of the Millennium Essay in Nature, claimed that
   Pauling was one of the greatest thinkers and visionaries of the
   millennium, along with Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. Pauling is also
   notable for the diversity of his interests: quantum mechanics,
   inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, protein structure, molecular
   biology, and medicine. In all these fields, and especially on the
   boundaries between them, he made decisive contributions. His work on
   chemical bonding marks the beginning of modern quantum chemistry, and
   many of his contributions like hybridization and electronegativity have
   become part of standard chemistry textbooks. Although his valence bond
   approach fell short of accounting quantitatively for some of the
   characteristics of molecules, such as the paramagnetic nature of oxygen
   and the colour of organometallic complexes, and would later be
   superseded by the Molecular Orbital Theory of Robert Mulliken, the
   strength of Pauling's theory has lain in its simplicity, and it has
   endured. Pauling's work on crystal structure contributed significantly
   to the prediction and elucidation of the structures of complex minerals
   and compounds. His discovery of the alpha helix and beta sheet is a
   fundamental foundation for the study of protein structure.

   In his time, Pauling was frequently honored with the sobriquet "Father
   of molecular biology", a contribution acknowledged by Francis Crick.
   His discovery of sickle cell anaemia as a 'molecular disease' opened
   the way toward examining genetically acquired mutations at a molecular
   level.

   Though the scientific community at large did not agree with Pauling's
   conclusions in his vitamin-related medical research and writing, his
   entry into the fray gave a larger voice in the public mind to nutrient
   such as vitamins and minerals for disease prevention. Some have stated
   his advocacy probably quadrupled the human consumption of ascorbic
   acid, worldwide, in the years after he published Vitamin C and the
   Common Cold (1971). Pauling's stand also led these subjects to be more
   much actively investigated by other researchers, including those at the
   Linus Pauling Institute which lists a dozen principal investigators and
   faculty who explore the role of micronutrients, plus phytochemicals, in
   health and disease.

Death

   Pauling died of prostate cancer on August 19, 1994 and is buried at
   Oswego Pioneer Cemetery, Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA.

Honours

     * 1931 Langmuir Prize, American Chemical Society
     * 1941 Nichols Medal, New York Section, American Chemical Society
     * 1947 Davy Medal, Royal Society
     * 1948 United States Presidential Medal for Merit
     * 1952 Pasteur Medal, Biochemical Society of France
     * 1954 Nobel Prize, Chemistry
     * 1955 Addis Medal, National Nephrosis Foundation
     * 1955 Phillips Memorial Award, American College of Physicians
     * 1956 Avogadro Medal, Italian Academy of Science
     * 1957 Paul Sabatier Medal
     * 1957 Pierre Fermat Medal in Mathematics
     * 1957 International Grotius Medal
     * 1962 Nobel Peace Prize
     * 1965 Order of Merit, Republic of Italy
     * 1965 Medal, Academy of the Rumanian People's Republic
     * 1966 Linus Pauling Medal
     * 1966 Silver Medal, Institute of France
     * 1966 Supreme Peace Sponsor, World Fellowship of Religion
     * 1972 United States National Medal of Science
     * 1972 International Lenin Peace Prize
     * 1978 Lomonosov Medal, USSR Academy of Science
     * 1979 Medal for Chemical Sciences, National Academy of Science
     * 1984 Priestley Medal, American Chemical Society
     * 1984 Award for Chemistry, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation
     * 1987 Award in Chemical Education, American Chemical Society
     * 1989 Vannevar Bush Award, National Science Board
     * 1990 Richard C. Tolman Medal, Southern California, Section,
       American Chemical Society

Trivia

     * Linus Pauling was a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity.
     * Linus Pauling is the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes.
     * Linus Pauling was a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma professional
       chemistry fraternity.
     * Linus Pauling was a member of the Lutheran Church
     * Linus Pauling was a member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research
       Society and a founder-member of the Society's Caltech chapter.
     * There is a Houston, Texas, psych-rock band called the Linus Pauling
       Quartet.
     * In Corvallis, Oregon, USA, Highland View Middle School was renamed
       Linus Pauling Middle School in 2003.
     * Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux is named after Pauling.

Works by Linus Pauling

     * Pauling, L. The Nature of the Chemical Bond (Cornell University
       Press) ISBN 0-8014-0333-2
          + Manuscript notes and typescripts (clear images)
     * Pauling, L., and Wilson, E. B. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
       with Applications to Chemistry (Dover Publications) ISBN
       0-486-64871-0
     * Cameron E. and Pauling, L. 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 Books) ISBN
       0-940159-21-X
     * Pauling, L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better (Avon Books) ISBN
       0-380-70289-4
     * Pauling, L. Linus Pauling On Peace - A Scientist Speaks Out on
       Humanism and World Survival (Rising Star Press) ISBN 0-933670-03-6
     * Pauling, L. General Chemistry (Dover Publications) ISBN
       0-486-65622-5
     * A Lifelong Quest for Peace with Daisaku Ikeda
     * Pauling, L. The Architecture of Molecules

Quotes

     * "A couple of days after my talk, there was a man in my office from
       the FBI saying, 'Who told you how much plutonium there is in an
       atomic bomb?' And I said 'Nobody told me, I figured it out.'"
     * "I have always liked working in some scientific direction that
       nobody else is working in."
     * "Perhaps as one of the older generation, I should preach a little
       sermon to you, but I do not propose to do so. I shall, instead,
       give you a word of advice about how to behave toward your elders.
       When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him
       carefully and with respect – but do not believe him. Never put your
       trust in anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter
       whether he has gray hair or lost his hair, no matter whether he is
       a Nobel Laureate, may be wrong... So you must always be skeptical –
       always think for yourself."
     * "Well, you just have lots of ideas and throw away the bad ones. You
       aren't going to have good ideas, unless you have lots of ideas and
       some principle of selection."
     * "'You should recognize,' he [Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson] said to me,
       'that there is in almost every investigation a lack of complete
       rigor. You should understand just how reliable the arguments are
       that you are presenting.'"

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