Condensed from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994)
[4] was an American
chemist,
biochemist,
peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century.
[5][6] Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of
quantum chemistry and
molecular biology.
[7]
For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. In 1962, for his peace activism, he was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize. This makes him the only person to be awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes. He is one of only four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being
Marie Curie,
John Bardeen, and
Frederick Sanger). Pauling is also one of only two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie.
[8]
Career
Pauling was first exposed to the concepts of
quantum mechanics while studying at
Oregon State University. He later traveled to Europe on a
Guggenheim Fellowship, which was awarded to him in 1926, 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 in the new field of quantum mechanics and other branches of physics. Pauling became interested in how quantum mechanics might be applied in his chosen field of interest, the
electronic structure of atoms and molecules. In Zürich, 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 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. He also joined
Alpha Chi Sigma, the professional chemistry fraternity.
In 1927, Pauling took a new position as an assistant professor at
Caltech in
theoretical chemistry. He launched his faculty career with a very productive five years, continuing with his
X-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 as
Pauling's rules. By 1929, he was promoted to associate professor, and by 1930, to full professor. In 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.
[36] The following year, 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.
[37]
At Caltech, Pauling struck up a close friendship with
theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who was spending part of his research and teaching schedule away from
U.C. 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. Their relationship soured when Pauling began to suspect that Oppenheimer was becoming too close to his 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 in Mexico.
[38] She flatly refused, and reported the incident to Pauling. Disquieted by this strange chemistry, and her apparent nonchalance about the incident, he immediately cut off his relationship with Oppenheimer.
In the summer of 1930, Pauling made another European trip, during which he learned about the use of
electrons in
diffraction studies similar to the ones he had performed with X-rays. After returning, he built an
electron diffraction instrument at Caltech with a student of his, L. O. Brockway, and used it to study the
molecular structure of a large number of chemical substances.
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.
Nature of the chemical bond
In the late 1920s Pauling 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.
[39] 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.
Part of Pauling's work on the nature of the chemical bond led to his introduction of the concept of orbital hybridization.
[40] While it is normal to think of the electrons in an atom as being described by
orbitals of types such as
s and
p, 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.
[41]
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.
[42] 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 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.
[43] 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.
Biological molecules
An 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's
Warren Weaver, decided to strike out into new areas of interest. 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 as
Thomas Hunt Morgan,
Theodosius Dobzhanski,
Calvin Bridges and
Alfred Sturtevant. His early work in this area included studies of the structure of
hemoglobin. He demonstrated that the hemoglobin molecule changes structure when it gains or loses an
oxygen atom. As a result of this observation, he decided to conduct 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 planar nature of the peptide bond, Pauling,
Robert Corey and
Herman Branson correctly proposed the
alpha helix and
beta sheet as the primary structural motifs in protein
secondary structure.
[44] This work exemplified Pauling's ability to think unconventionally; central to the structure was the unorthodox assumption that one turn of the helix may well contain a non-
integer number of amino acid residues; for the alpha helix it is 3.7 amino acid residues per turn.
Pauling then proposed that
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was a
triple helix;
[45][46] 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 alpha helix 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 the
Cavendish Laboratory that Pauling was working on molecular models of the structure of DNA,
James Watson and
Francis Crick were allowed to make a molecular model of DNA. They later benefited from unpublished data from
Maurice Wilkins and
Rosalind Franklin at
King'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. 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 the
McCarthy period in the United States).
[47] 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.
[48]
Pauling also studied
enzyme reactions and was among the first 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 Delbrück, 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 "
Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease"
[49] in the journal
Science. It was the first proof of a human disease caused by an abnormal protein, and sickle cell anemia became the first disease understood at the molecular level. Using
electrophoresis, they demonstrated that individuals with
sickle cell disease had a modified form of hemoglobin in their
red blood cells, and that individuals with
sickle cell trait had both the normal and abnormal forms of hemoglobin. This was also the first demonstration that
Mendelian inheritance determined the specific physical properties of proteins, not simply their presence or absence – the dawn of
molecular genetics.
Activism
Pauling had been practically apolitical until
World War II, but the aftermath of the war and his wife's pacifism 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, not wanting to uproot his family. He did work on other projects that had military applications, such as explosives, rocket propellants, an oxygen meter for submarines and the patent of an armor-piercing shell; he was awarded a Presidential Medal of Merit.
[50][51] In 1946, he joined the
Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by
Albert Einstein.
[52] Its 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.
[53][54] In a speech before the
US senate on June 6 of the same year, Senator
Wayne Morse publicly denounced the action of the State Department, and urged the Passport Division to reverse its decision. Pauling and his wife Ava were issued a “limited passport” to attend the aforementioned conference in England.
[55][56] His passport was restored in 1954, shortly before the ceremony in
Stockholm where he received his first Nobel Prize. Joining Einstein,
Bertrand Russell and eight other leading scientists and intellectuals, he signed the
Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.
[57]
In 1958, Pauling joined a petition drive in cooperation with the founders of the St. Louis Citizen's Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI). This group, headed by
Washington University in St. Louis professors
Barry Commoner, Eric Reiss, M. W. Friedlander and John Fowler, set up a study of radioactive
strontium-90 in the
baby teeth of children across North America. The "
Baby Tooth Survey," headed by Dr
Louise Reiss, demonstrated conclusively in 1961 that above-ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks in the form of
radioactive fallout spread primarily via milk from cows that had ingested contaminated grass.
[58][59][60] Pauling also participated in a public debate with the atomic physicist
Edward Teller about the actual probability of fallout causing mutations.
[61] In 1958, Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations with the petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an end to
the testing of nuclear weapons. Public pressure and the frightening results of the CNI research 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."
[62] The Committee for Nuclear Information was never credited for its significant contribution to the test ban, nor was the ground-breaking research conducted by Dr Reiss and the "Baby Tooth Survey". The Caltech Chemistry Department, wary of his political views, did not even formally congratulate him. They did throw him a small party, showing they were more appreciative and sympathetic toward his work on radiation mutation. At Caltech he founded
Sigma Xi's (The Scientific Research Society) chapter at the school, as he had previously been a member of that organization. He continued his peace activism in the following years co-founding the
International League of Humanists in 1974. He was president of the scientific advisory board of the
World Union for Protection of Life and also one of the signatories of the Dubrovnik-Philadelphia Statement.
During the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson’s policy of increasing America’s involvement in the Vietnam War caused an antiwar 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 government.
[63] By the time Pauling turned 65 in 1966, he was without a research group or a big scientific issue to focus on. A new generation of more radical, younger activists would march, petition, and lead the movement against the Vietnam War.
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 naive 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." A 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.
[64]
Contretemps with William F. Buckley, National Review.
After Pauling had won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Lenin Peace Prize, he became a frequent target of
The National Review magazine; particularly, in an article entitled "The Collaborators" in the magazine's July 17, 1962 issue. Pauling was not only referred to as a collaborator, but a "fellow traveler" with proponents of Soviet style communism. These National Review articles set off a three year legal battle in the form of federal libel case. In 1965, Pauling sued the magazine, its publisher
William Rusher, and its editor
William F. Buckley, Jr for $1 million. Subsequently, he lost both his suit and the 1968 appeal. The loss of both suits and continued attacks by the National Review did nothing to enhance Pauling's reputation.
[65] [66] [67] [68]
Molecular medicine, medical research, and vitamin C advocacy
Linus Pauling's book,
How to Live Longer and Feel Better, advocated the very high intake of
Vitamin C.
In 1941, at age 40, Pauling was diagnosed with
Bright's disease, a renal disease. Following the recommendations of
Thomas Addis, Pauling was able to control the disease with Addis' then unusual low-protein salt-free diet and vitamin supplements.
[69]
In 1951, Pauling gave a lecture entitled "Molecular Medicine".
[70] 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. In 1965 Pauling read
Niacin Therapy in Psychiatry by Abram Hoffer and theorized vitamins might have important biochemical effects unrelated to their prevention of associated deficiency diseases.
[71] In 1968 Pauling published a brief paper in
Science entitled "Orthomolecular psychiatry"
[72] 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 is not generally practiced by conventional medical professionals and has been strongly criticized.
[73][74] His promotion of
dietary supplements has also been criticized. In a 2013 article in
The Atlantic, pediatrician
Paul Offit wrote that although Pauling was "so spectacularly right" that he won two Nobel Prizes, Pauling's late-career assertions about the benefits of dietary supplements were "so spectacularly wrong that he was arguably the world's greatest quack."
[75]
Pauling's work on
vitamin C in his later years generated much controversy. He was first introduced to the concept of high-dose vitamin C by biochemist
Irwin Stone in 1966. After becoming convinced of its worth, Pauling took 3 grams of vitamin C every day to prevent
colds.
[4] Excited by his own perceived 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.
[76]
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 and eventually published two studies of a group of 100 allegedly
terminal patients that claimed vitamin C increased survival by as much as four times compared to untreated patients.
[77][78] 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.
[79]
Later clinical trials conducted by the
Mayo Clinic also concluded that high-dose (10,000 mg) vitamin C was no better than
placebo at treating cancer and that there was no benefit to high-dose vitamin C.
[80][81][82] 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 concluding that his claims that vitamin C could prevent colds or treat cancer were
quackery.
[4][83] Pauling denounced the conclusions of these studies and handling of the final study as "fraud and deliberate misrepresentation",
[84][85] and criticized the studies for using oral, rather than
intravenous vitamin C
[86] (which was the dosing method used for the first ten days of Pauling's original study
[83]). 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.
[87] The results were publicly debated at length with considerable acrimony between Pauling and Cameron, and Moertel (the lead author of the Mayo Clinic studies), with accusations of misconduct and scientific incompetence on both sides.
Ultimately the negative findings of the Mayo Clinic studies ended general interest in vitamin C as a treatment for cancer.
[85] Despite this, Pauling continued to promote vitamin C for treating cancer and the common cold, working with
The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential to use vitamin C in the treatment of brain-injured children.
[88] He later collaborated with the Canadian physician
Abram Hoffer on a micronutrient regimen, including high-dose vitamin C, as adjunctive cancer therapy.
[89] 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.
[90] Currently, the available evidence does not support a role for high dose vitamin C in the treatment of cancer.
[91]
With
Arthur B. Robinson and another colleague, 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. 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. Several researchers that had previously worked at the Linus Pauling Institute in Palo Alto, including the assistant director of research, moved on to form the
Genetic Information Research Institute.
Structure of the atomic nucleus
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."
[92] On October 15, 1965, Pauling published his Close-Packed Spheron Model of the atomic nucleus in two well respected journals,
Science and the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[93] For nearly three decades, until his death in 1994, Pauling published numerous papers on his spheron cluster model.
[94][95][96][97][98][99]
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 the
deuteron [np],
helion [pnp], and
triton [npn]. Even–even nuclei are described as being composed of clusters of
alpha particles, as has often been done for light nuclei.
[citation needed] Pauling attempted to derive the shell structure of nuclei from pure geometrical considerations related to
Platonic solids rather than starting from an independent particle model as in the usual
shell model. In an interview given in 1990 Pauling commented on his model:
[100]
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...
Legacy
Pauling died of
prostate cancer on August 19, 1994, at 19:20 at home in
Big Sur, California. He was 93 years old.
[101][102] A grave marker for him is in Oswego Pioneer Cemetery in
Lake Oswego, Oregon.
[102][103] Pauling’s ashes, along with those of his wife, were moved from Big Sur to the Oswego Pioneer Cemetery in 2005.
[104]
Pauling was included in a list of the 20 greatest scientists of all time by the magazine
New Scientist, with Albert Einstein being the only other scientist from the 20th century on the list. Pauling is 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. While his
valence bond approach fell short of accounting quantitatively for some of the characteristics of molecules, such as the
photoelectron spectra of many molecules, and would later be eclipsed by the
molecular orbital theory of
Robert Mulliken, Valence Bond Theory still competes, in its modern form, with both Molecular Orbital Theory and
density functional theory (DFT) for describing the chemical phenomena.
[105] Pauling's work on crystal structure contributed significantly to the prediction and elucidation of the structures of complex minerals and compounds.
[citation needed] His discovery of the alpha helix and beta sheet is a fundamental foundation for the study of protein structure.
[citation needed]
Francis Crick acknowledged Pauling as the "father of molecular biology"
[106] His discovery of
sickle cell anemia as a "molecular disease" opened the way toward examining genetically acquired mutations at a molecular level.
[citation needed]
Pauling's work on the molecular basis of disease and its treatment is being carried on by a number of researchers, notably those at the Linus Pauling Institute, which lists a dozen principal investigators and faculty who study the role of micronutrients and phytochemicals in health and disease.
Items named after Pauling include Pauling Street in Foothill Ranch, California,
[107] Linus Pauling Drive in Hercules, California, Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Hall at
Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California, Linus Pauling Middle School in Corvallis, Oregon, and
Pauling Field, a small airfield located in Condon, Oregon, where Pauling spent his youth. Additionally, the Linus Pauling Institute
[108] and also a wing of
The Valley Library at Oregon State University bear his name. There is a psychedelic rock band in Houston, Texas, named
The Linus Pauling Quartet.
The Caltech Chemistry Department renamed room 22 of Gates Hall the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall, since Linus spent so much time there.
Linus Torvalds, developer of the
Linux kernel, is named after Pauling.
[109]
On March 6, 2008, the
United States Postal Service released a 41 cent stamp honoring Pauling designed by artist
Victor Stabin.
[110] 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." The other scientists on this sheet include
Gerty Cori, biochemist,
Edwin Hubble, astronomer, and John Bardeen, physicist.
California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady
Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008 that Pauling would be inducted into the
California Hall of Fame, located at
The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place December 15, 2008. Pauling's son was asked to accept the honor in his place.
Nobel laureate
Peter Agre has said that Linus Pauling inspired him.
[111]
Quasicrystals
Pauling was a stubborn opponent of the idea of
quasicrystals, relentlessly attacking
Shechtman; Pauling is quoted as saying "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists."
[112] Shechtman was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011 for his work on quasicrystals.
Honors and awards
Pauling received numerous awards and honors during his career, including the following:
[113][114]
- 1931 Irving Langmuir Award, American Chemical Society.[113][114]
- 1941 Nichols Medal, New York Section, American Chemical Society.[113]
- 1946 Willard Gibbs Award, Chicago section of the American Chemical Society.[114]
- 1947 Davy Medal, Royal Society.[113][114]
- 1947 T. W. Richards Medal, Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society.[114]
- 1948 Presidential Medal for Merit by President Harry S. Truman of the United States.[113][114]
- 1948 Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (ForMemRS)[4]
- 1951 Gilbert N. Lewis medal, California section of the American Chemical Society.[114]
- 1952 Pasteur Medal, Biochemical Society of France.[113]
- 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[113][114]
- 1955 Addis Medal, National Nephrosis Foundation.[113][114]
- 1955 John Phillips Memorial Award, American College of Physicians.[113][114]
- 1956 Avogadro Medal, Italian Academy of Science.[113][114]
- 1957 Paul Sabatier Medal.
- 1957 Pierre Fermat Medal in Mathematics (awarded for only the sixth time in three centuries).[113][114][115]
- 1957 International Grotius Medal.[113]
- 1961 Humanist of the Year, American Humanist Association.
- 1961 Gandhi Peace Award by Promoting Enduring Peace.[116]
- 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.[113][114]
- 1965 Medal, Academy of the Rumanian People's Republic.[113]
- 1966 Linus Pauling Award.[113]
- 1966 Silver Medal, Institute of France.[113]
- 1966 Supreme Peace Sponsor, World Fellowship of Religion.[113]
- 1967 Washington A. Roebling Medal, Mineralogical Society of America.[114]
- 1972 Lenin Peace Prize.[113]
- 1974 National Medal of Science by President Gerald R. Ford of the United States.[114]
- 1978 Lomonosov Gold Medal, Presidium of the Academy of the USSR.[113][114]
- 1979 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences.[113][117]
- 1981 John K. Lattimer Award, American Urological Association.[114]
- 1984 Priestley Medal, American Chemical Society.[113][114]
- 1984 Award for Chemistry, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.[113]
- 1986 Lavoisier Medal by Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie.[114]
- 1987 Award in Chemical Education, American Chemical Society.[113]
- 1989 Vannevar Bush Award, National Science Board.[113][114]
- 1990 Richard C. Tolman Medal, American Chemical Society Southern California Section.[113]
- 2008 "American Scientists" U.S. postage stamp series, $0.41, for his sickle cell disease work.[118]
