Linus Pauling and the Mystery of Anesthesia: Part II

[Part 4 of 5]
After nearly a decade of puzzling over the mechanisms of anesthesia, Pauling had finally developed a workable theory. By re-imagining molecular interactions, he had been able to produce an entirely new theory that not only explained the effects of general anesthesia but even demonstrated the reversibility of the process. In [...]

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 [...]

The Paulings’ Later Peace Activism: Vietnam and the Gulf War

The peace activism of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling reached its crescendo in the late 1950s and early 1960s, beginning with the submission of their Bomb Test Petition to the United Nations in 1958 and ending with Linus Pauling’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1963. As the turbulent 1960s moved forward, [...]

Visiting Albert Schweitzer

“A humanitarian is a man who believes that no human being should be sacrificed to a project — especially to the project of perfecting nuclear weapons to kill hundreds of millions of people.”
-Albert Schweitzer. “A Nobel scientist speaks: Every test kills…” Liberation (New York) 2, no. 11. February 1958.
In 1959 Linus and Ava Helen Pauling [...]