The Paulings in Latin America, 1940s – 1950s

[Part 1 of 5] Throughout his long career as a scientist and peace advocate, Linus Pauling’s work took him all over the world, not excluding Latin America, to which he traveled multiple times. In fact, of the nineteen countries which today constitute Latin America, the only ones which Pauling did not visit were Ecuador, Honduras, [...]

“Force of Nature,” now available as an e-book

The blog has recently acquired an e-reader and is taking the opportunity to re-read Thomas Hager’s excellent 1995 biography, Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, now available for download.  The Hager biography has long been out of print, so it’s especially good news that this valuable book has re-entered the marketplace in digital [...]

Barclay Kamb, 1931-2011

“I have just read an article about time by Hsü in PNAS.  I have not been able to understand it all.  However, he thanks you, so perhaps sometime when you come to the ranch you can explain his ideas to me.” -Linus Pauling, letter to Barclay Kamb, December 3, 1992. Geologist and former Caltech Vice [...]

William Lipscomb, 1919-2011

“When I was growing up and learning science and all through my undergraduate days, I thought the worst thing you could possibly do is publish something that is wrong. It turns out that’s not right. Linus taught me that. It is much worse to work on something that is dull.“ – Bill Lipscomb, November 1991. [...]

Pauling110

Today marks the 110th anniversary of Linus Pauling’s birth, which occurred in Portland, Oregon on February 28, 1901. As has become tradition on the Pauling Blog, we are celebrating this occasion by looking back at Pauling’s life in increments of twenty-five years. 1911 At the tender age of ten, young Linus was already at a [...]

Goodbye Cliff

Today marks the final day in the office for Clifford Mead, the only Head of Special Collections that Oregon State University has ever known. He is retiring after twenty-four years of service to OSU Libraries, a time during which the institution has experienced tremendous growth. When Linus Pauling donated his papers to OSU in April [...]

Vitamin C, the Common Cold and Controversy

By Tom Hager [Part 3 of 3. For the full text of this article, originally presented as a lecture sponsored by Oregon Health Sciences University, please see this page, available at http://thomashager.net] Pauling’s reading of the literature convinced him that the more vitamin C you took, approaching megadose levels, the lower your chances of getting [...]

The Birth of Orthomolecular Medicine

By Tom Hager [Part 2 of 3.  For the full text of this article, originally presented as a lecture sponsored by Oregon Health Sciences University, please see this page, available at http://thomashager.net] The concept of orthomolecular medicine was Pauling’s grand theory of human health. His approach was chemical, and viewed the body as a vast [...]

The Medical Research of Linus Pauling

By Tom Hager [Ed Note:  In October 2010, Pauling biographer Tom Hager delivered a talk sponsored by the Oregon Health Sciences University which detailed and discussed the various contributions that Linus Pauling made to the medical sciences, including the controversy over his strong interest in orthomolecular medicine.   With the author's permission, excerpts of this talk [...]

Radioactive Fallout and the Birth of the “Superbomb”

    [Part 2 of 2] While Linus Pauling’s immediate concern with the new hydrogen bomb was avoidance of a global nuclear conflict, he was also very uneasy about the threat of nuclear fallout. As is now commonly understood, dangerous byproducts result from the fission fraction of radioactive materials following the detonation of atomic weapons. [...]