Life in the Cold War 1980s

Three new additions to our archive of Pauling Peace Lectureship presentations have been added recently to the Events and Videos page of the OSU Libraries Special Collections website.  Dating to the mid-1980s, each is a reflection of the major, and mounting, concerns that peace activists and critics of U.S. foreign policy harbored during the eight [...]

The Pauling Centenary Conference

The date February 28, 2001 is meaningful to many residents of the Pacific Northwest.  At 10:54 AM that morning, the Nisqually earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 temblor located northwest of Olympia, Washington, shook the earth beneath the greater Seattle-Tacoma area and ultimately caused over $1 billion in damage.
Some 200 miles south in Corvallis, faint signs of [...]

The Linus Pauling Science Center

Last Friday, September 25th, Oregon State University formally launched the construction of what will be the largest academic building on the OSU campus – the Linus Pauling Science Center.  Scheduled for completion in Spring 2011, the Pauling Science Center is a centerpiece of the on-going Campaign for OSU.
Linus Pauling’s extraordinary career was defined in large [...]

Pauling’s Work on Swine Flu

The current concern over the world-wide spread of swine flu virus brings to mind research that Dr. Linus Pauling conducted on this very subject, some thirty-three years ago.
Pauling’s interest in swine flu seems to have been stoked by a convergence of two factors: 1) mounting fears over a potential swine flu epidemic that first emerged [...]

Happy (Almost) Birthday Linus Pauling!

Cross-posted at Ether Wave Propaganda
Linus Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon on February 28, 1901, meaning that this coming Saturday will mark the 108th anniversary of his birth. (He died on August 19, 1994 at the age of 93)
Over the years, one of our annual habits around here has been to reflect back upon [...]

Carleton Gajdusek, Doug Strain and Richard T. Jones

Before settling completely in to 2009, we would like to take a moment to note the 2008 passing of three men who had, in various ways, inhabited the Pauling orbit.
D. Carleton Gajdusek died on December 12, 2008 at the age of 85.  Gajdusek was a former graduate student of Pauling’s who received international acclaim – [...]

Pauling on Global Warming

President-elect Obama’s recent nomination of Oregon State University’s Dr. Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been big news in this community of late.
We had occasion to work with Dr. Lubchenco a bit last year, as she was one of the speakers who presented at our conference, “The Scientist as [...]

Pauling Inducted Into the California Hall of Fame

By our count, Linus Pauling was granted forty-seven honorary doctorates over the course of his lifetime, as well as every meaningful award that a scientist can receive.  He remains, of course, the only person to have received two unshared Nobel prizes – images of the Nobel medals and many other of his awards can be [...]

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of No More War!

“Dr. Pauling writes with a noble passion, which even the most hardened cynic must respect….[No More War!] should be widely read and deeply pondered.”
- Philip Noel-Baker, 1958.
A few weeks ago, Linda Richards, an Oregon State University History of Science graduate student, approached us with an idea to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of No More War! [...]

Cancer and Vitamin C Redux

The conversation concerning the possible use of vitamin C in the treatment of cancer continues to gather momentum. 
As we’ve noted before on the PaulingBlog, the possibility that ascorbic acid might be a useful tool in the fight against cancer was a topic of intense interest to Linus Pauling and a handful of his [...]