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Learn about the life and work of Linus Pauling, the American chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954 for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances. Find out how he was involved in the anti-nuclear movement, his publications, his affiliation, and his legacy.
For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of five people to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen, Frederick Sanger, and Karl Barry Sharpless ). [7] .
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- Elucidation of molecular structures
Linus Pauling (born February 28, 1901, Portland, Oregon, U.S.—died August 19, 1994, Big Sur, California) American theoretical physical chemist who became the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes. His first prize (1954) was awarded for research into the nature of the chemical bond and its use in elucidating molecular structure; the seco...
Pauling was the first of three children and the only son of Herman Pauling, a pharmacist, and Lucy Isabelle (Darling) Pauling, a pharmacist’s daughter. After his early education in Condon and Portland, Oregon, he attended Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), where he met Ava Helen Miller, who would later become his wife, and w...
After completing postdoctoral studies, Pauling returned to Caltech in 1927. There he began a long career of teaching and research. Analyzing chemical structure became the central theme of his scientific work. By using the technique of X-ray diffraction, he determined the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in several important silicate and sulfide minerals. In 1930, during a trip to Germany, Pauling learned about electron diffraction, and upon his return to California he used this technique of scattering electrons from the nuclei of molecules to determine the structures of some important substances. This structural knowledge assisted him in developing an electronegativity scale in which he assigned a number representing a particular atom’s power of attracting electrons in a covalent bond.
To complement the experimental tool that X-ray analysis provided for exploring molecular structure, Pauling turned to quantum mechanics as a theoretical tool. For example, he used quantum mechanics to determine the equivalent strength in each of the four bonds surrounding the carbon atom. He developed a valence bond theory in which he proposed that a molecule could be described by an intermediate structure that was a resonance combination (or hybrid) of other structures. His book The Nature of the Chemical Bond, and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals (1939) provided a unified summary of his vision of structural chemistry.
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The arrival of the geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan at Caltech in the late 1920s stimulated Pauling’s interest in biological molecules, and by the mid-1930s he was performing successful magnetic studies on the protein hemoglobin. He developed further interests in protein and, together with biochemist Alfred Mirsky, Pauling published a paper in 1936 on general protein structure. In this work the authors explained that protein molecules naturally coiled into specific configurations but became “denatured” (uncoiled) and assumed some random form once certain weak bonds were broken.
On one of his trips to visit Mirsky in New York, Pauling met Karl Landsteiner, the discoverer of blood types, who became his guide into the field of immunochemistry. Pauling was fascinated by the specificity of antibody-antigen reactions, and he later developed a theory that accounted for this specificity through a unique folding of the antibody’s polypeptide chain. World War II interrupted this theoretical work, and Pauling’s focus shifted to more practical problems, including the preparation of an artificial substitute for blood serum useful to wounded soldiers and an oxygen detector useful in submarines and airplanes. J. Robert Oppenheimer asked Pauling to head the chemistry section of the Manhattan Project, but his suffering from glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the glomerular region of the kidney) prevented him from accepting this offer. For his outstanding services during the war, Pauling was later awarded the Presidential Medal for Merit.
- Robert J. Paradowski
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Best known to the public for championing the use of vitamin C for health purposes and for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Linus Carl Pauling (1901–1994) was revered by his fellow scientists as a prolific researcher who made significant contributions to our understanding of chemical bonding and chemical structure.
Two Nobel Prizes By the 1950s Linus Pauling was certainly the premier structural chemist and probably the premier chemist of his time. His work was capped by the Nobel Prize, awarded in 1954 "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the eludication of the structure of complex substances."
Linus Pauling was the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, in chemistry and peace, for his research on the nature of the chemical bond and its applications to molecular biology and medicine. He also founded the field of molecular biology and made important advances in medical research. Learn more about his life, achievements, and legacy.
Among the humanitarian awards Pauling won, the most notable, of course, was the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962; he was also given the Gandhi and Lenin peace prizes and the Albert Schweitzer Peace medal. Pauling was named Humanist of the Year in 1961.
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