The Martha Chase Effect

The Phenomenon
It pretty well goes without saying that the primary mission of the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections is to preserve, describe and make available the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers.  Beginning, more or less, with the Pauling centenary in 2001, the main focus of our Pauling-related work has been description and accessibility [...]

The Importance of the Concept of Molecular Disease

“The idea of Dr. Linus Pauling that an abnormal hemoglobin molecule might be responsible for the sickling process initiated the study of the hemoglobin molecule in hereditary anemias.“
- Harvey Itano. “Clinical States Associated with Alterations of the Hemoglobin Molecule.” Archives of Internal Medicine, 96: 287-97, 295. 1955.
During his lengthy career, Linus Pauling maintained a long-running [...]

Pauling’s Theory of Sickle Cell Anemia

“We owe to Pauling and his collaborators the realization that sickle cell anaemia is an example of an inherited ‘molecular disease’ and that it is due to an alteration in the structure of a large protein molecule, an alteration leading to a protein which is by all criteria still a haemoglobin.“
- Vernon M. Ingram, [...]

Pauling’s Methodology: Electrophoresis

[Electrophoresis image extracted from the published version of Arne Tiselius' Nobel lecture, December 13, 1948.  A digitized version of this lecture is available here courtesy of the Nobel Museum.]
“The item of $7,500 for apparatus, supplies, animals would permit us to use the large number of animals required for some of our projected researches, and should [...]

“It’s in the Blood!” A Revised, METS-based Website

“It [hemoglobin] is a good substance from the standpoint of a chemist, because of its availability. All you need to do is to catch somebody, introduce a hypodermic needle and draw out a sample of blood. A standard victim of this practice, weighing perhaps 120 pounds (it’s easier to catch them small!) contains in the [...]