The self-taught chemist. Linus Pauling's lifelong fascination with chemistry was ignited duringchildhood by a friend's chemistry set. He was born on February 28, 1901, in Portland, Oregon,to a family that lacked the resources to buy him a chemistry set, so Paulingcreated his own using chemicals he found in an abandoned iron smelter. Hequickly taught himself more about chemistry than he could learn in his local highschool.
The education.Pauling enrolled in college at age 16, and he was teaching the course he hadtaken the year before by age 18. He was a charismatic public speaker who wasable to make the most advanced chemistry concepts interesting, even to thosewho knew nothing about chemistry. His students loved him, especially a youngwoman named Ava Helen, who later became his wife and the mother of his fourchildren. Pauling finished his education at the California Institute ofTechnology, where he would spend most of his career researching and teaching.
The work. Thegenius of Pauling's work rests not in a single discovery; it lies in its scope.Indeed, he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his entire body of work, not just a singleaccomplishment. Pauling is probably best known for working out the nature ofthe chemical bond, yet he also discovered (among many other accomplishments) thecause of sickle cell anemia, developed an accurate oxygen meter for submarines,helped create synthetic plasma, and determined the structure of proteins.
The activism. DuringWWII, Pauling's laser-like focus on his work shifted for the first time sincehis childhood. He took a public stance against war and the use of nuclearweapons while advocating for international diplomacy through the UnitedNations. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his crusade againstnuclear-weapons testing. In his later years, Pauling became a champion forVitamin C. He believed that taking very high doses of this vitamin would wardoff infection, and perhaps even prevent or treat cancer.
The price. Inthe early 1950s, many scientists were racing to discover the structure of DNA.Pauling proposed a triple helix structure with the bases on the outside, butJames Watson and Francis Crick ultimately disproved his idea with their famousdouble helix model. They had succeeded largely because they had access to X-raycrystallography data from scientists at King's College in London. If Pauling had been able tocollaborate with these scientists, he may have been able to correct the errorsin his model and claim the prize. However, his political activism brought on suspicion that he was a communist. Due to irrational distrust of liberalism among US political leaders at the time, he was blacklisted, and was not allowed to leave the country. His belief in pacifismmay have cost him what could have been the crowning achievement of his career.
Always a scientist. Pauling spent his last years directing research at the Linus PaulingInstitute and writing about subjects that interested him, such as the structureof atomic nuclei. He died of cancer at age 93 on August 19, 1994.
