APRIL 30, 1996 . THIS WEEK ' SECTION A o PAQE 3

   Linus' Pauling:
Portland's Nobel Prize winner


By Larry Leonard

Webster's defines rebel as "one who resists the
lawful authority of a government" and as "one who
is defiant." Somehow, the image of a young man
with a switchblade and a hotrod first comes to
mind. All Linus Pauling reminds you of is some-
body's grandfather.
This unusual man has, in his time, resisted the
lawful authority of a government. In 1960, he
presented a petition to the United Nations. On it
were the signatures of 11,021 scientists from
around the world. They wanted atmospheric
atomic testing halted. A United States Senate in-
ternal Security subcommittee demanded the
names of the people who helped Pauling circulate
the petition. They even threatened him with con-
tempt of Congress, but he kept his own counsel.
He did not reveal those names.        
In 1962, he was invited to the White Ho;se for

dinner. Before he went inside, he picked up a sign
,and joined a group of Quakers who were picketing
the place. When it was time to eat, he left the sign
leaning against the fence and walked in to join the
president and the other guests. John F. Kennedy,
greeting him in the reception line, dryly remarked,
"I understand you've been around the White
House for some time already."
Jackie added, "When Caroline saw you out
there, Dr. Pauling, she came to me and asked,
`What has daddy done wrong, now?' "
On February 23 of this year, Linus Carl .Pauling
turned 85. There's little question that in many'
ways, this was his century. Born and bred in
Oregon, his credits would make a tenured Mass-
achussetts Institute of Technology department
head weep with envy.

He has written numerous books, including: "The
Nature of the Chemical Bond," "The Architecture
of Molecules" (with Roger Hayward), "The Struc-
ture of Line Spectra," "General Chemistry,"
"College Chemistry, " "Introduction to Quantum
Mechanics" (with E.B. .Wilson, Jr.), "No More
War," the controversial "Vitamin C and the Com-
mon-Cold" (in a later edition: "Vitamin C, the Com-
mon Cold and the Flu") and his more recent work,
"How to Live Longer and Feel Better."     -
He's also authored articles, technical reports

and monographs: more than 400 to date. Pauling
had received 29 honorary doctorates by the late
1970s. He is a member of 16 scientific societies
in 10 countries, and has been awarded more than
20 of the world's top scientific medals, including
the U.S. Presidential Medal of Merit.

And he has received two unshared Nobel
Prizes.

Nobody, not Marie Curie, not Albert Einstein,
has done that.

This gentle intellectual began life right here.
Born in Portland in 1901, his roots go deep into
Oregon soil. His maternal grandfather, Linus
Wilson Darling,' came out west in the early 1880s.
Why the young attorney decided to settle `in
Wasco County, at Moon Rock, Is not recorded.
What is recorded is that he couldn't make a living
at law and so started a store.
That wasn't a hit, either, so the store was aban-
doned in what is now known as Darling Canyon.
The family headed for Summit Springs, which is
now Condon. It was there that Linus Darling's
daughter, Isabel, met and married Herman Paul-
ing. Their firstborn was Linus Pauling.
He came by his individualistic manner quite


naturally. His sister, Pauline Emmett, shared the
following information from a record she compiled'
of the Pauling family history:
"All the Darlings were highly intelligent people,
although some had quite a percentage of oddity.
Will Darling, or Bill, Linus Darling's brother, was a
paper hanger and a painter. He was also a con-
firmed spiritualist. His `control' was an Indian
named Red Cloud. Chatting with the spirits was an
evening affair with Bill. He was trying to get the
spirits to tell him the location of the lost gold mine
in the Lone Rock Country.
"Linus' aunt, Stella Darling, was a safe expert.
She could open any safe and had a national
reputation. She once traveled to London,
England, to open a safe."
Pauline was born ,in the east, then the family all
moved to Lake Oswego to run a drugstore. A sec-
ond daughter, Lucille Jenkins, was born there.
When Linus was five, they moved to a home in
Portland.                 \
He could read and write by then. A few years
later, his father penned the now-famous letter to
the Oregonian, asking assistance in the-form of a
reading list for the child. Young Linus studied Dar-
win and Dante before most kids mastered comic
books. At 17, he was a freshman at Oregon
Agricultural College, now Oregon State Uni-
versity.
"He lacked one credit for his high school
diploma,"  remembers Jenkins. "It was an
academic dispute between Linus and the Prin-
cipal. But I'm sure they didn't even require him to
take a test at the college. I recall he was the

youngest freshman that was taking calculus."
In 1922, he received his bachelor of science
degree, then went on to graduate study at the
California Institute of Technology. A Guggenheim
`Fellowship followed and Pauling was off to Europe
to -study with the world's leading theoretical
physicists. When he returned to Cal Tech, he
assumed a full professorship in the chemistry
department, soon becoming chairman of the divi--
sion of chemistry and director of the Gates and
. Creslin Laboratories. He was 36 at the time.
"Linus was always thinking," said Jenkins. "His
mind was just active all the time, wondering about

this and that and the reasons for them. I &call so
vividly one time when we were waiting for the train
at the Jefferson Street depot, to come out to'visit
Grandma and Grandpa in Oswego. It was a very
cold morning and Mother and I were standing
close together, and Linus was walking around a lit-
tle bit in the cold air. He said, `Mama, I know why
you don't get so cold if you are moving around.
Your feet aren't on the ,ground but half the time!' "

  Nobody is going to argue the reasoning behind
that idea. (Though there might be something to it,.
for all we know.) The point is that the thought was
original. It showed a knack, a twist of intellect.
  The ability to imagine a different answer, one
that nobody else has thought of, is critical to
scientific advancement. An idea can lead to a
hypothesis-and that is something you can test.
  This incessant curiosity was the driving force
behind the incredible career that followed. Paul-
ing's areas of study progressed from inorganic

chemistry dealing with crystals and gas molecules
to the highly complex organic molecules. It was
Pauling who discovered the alpha-helix, which
formed the basis for understanding the molecular
structure of proteins.

In 1935, he began working on hemoglobin (the
element that makes your blood red). In 1945, he
discovered that sickle-cell anemia, a disease that
attacks only blacks, was caused by abnormal '
hemoglobin molecules.
In 1954 he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for
his work on molecular bonds. His later campaign
--against nuclear testing brought him his secvd

The ability to imagine a
different answer, one
that nobody e/se has
thought of, is critical to
scientific advancement.


A&+!. ,@i i?e?.q~. prj?E!: &&J ~g&!$ %J="
!$n&@ne& ttjiit +rk reapeo `ra whirlw?%j .of: con-
tioversy. These days, Pauli'ng remains controver-.
.&al for his views on vitamin C (or "orthomolecular
medicine" as he calls the treatment of disease by
`affecting changes in body chemistry). His interest
in the subject originated with an attack of
.n `hrltis, a kidney disease, in 1941.
+i 3 e remembered the'process in an August 1977
interview in Science Digest: "(The inflammation)
gradually improved under nutritional therapy. I was
essentjally put aria low-protein diet, with no meat,
to rest the kidney. The physician also said that I
should take supplementary vitamins, one of which
w* vitamin C.
."Several years later, biochemist Irwin Stone got
me fnterested in large doses of witamip C and
niacin for the treatment of schizophreni.,Jn 1969,
I gave a talk in New York at the opening 9 the new
Mount Sinai Medical School, and I mentlpned the
value of large doses of vitamin C. One of the pro-
fessors of.medicine wrote me a very strong letter,
giving me the devil for supporting the `vitamin
quacks' and for suggesting that vitamin C had any
value."
A debate followed. And Pauling dug into the
studies and concluded he was not wrong on the
subject. He wrote "Vitamin C and the Common
Cold" and was once again in hot water.       -.
That's not to say that his life doesn't have placid

moments. A widower (his wife Ava was once his
student), he enjoys the company of `his children
and grandchildren. t.iving near the Stanford
University campus in Northern -California, he
keeps busy with research and writing projects.
The issue of aging interests him greatly-its
chemical and emotional aspects. There's always
some new project spurring him on. Even & 85,
this Oregon original remains electrically alive, `in-
tellectually vital, magnificently creative, and, yes,
a liffle bit rebellious.

As Linus. :Pauling sties. it m` m o m

' The outspoken Dr. Pauling has never been
reluctant to state his opinions. Witness a small
. sampling inspired by current events and issues.

On funding if the space program: "I think it's
pretty interesting,. the discoveries made in the
space program. But thousands of other
discoveries could be made if the same amount of
money was spent studying the human body, the
vectors of disease and molecular biology."

bn the teaching of creationism and evolution
in public schools: "Evolution is a great body of
scientific fact that should be taught to students at
every stage of their educations. It's hard for me to
see any justification for mentioning creationism in
schools, especially in view of the fact that our

government was constitutionally set up indepen
dent of religion."   1
                   o

IOn bringing solar power to the consumer:
"We know how to do the job-solar energy is l&
of the power supply in these space vehicles. But
present technology (as it relates to consumer use)
ls too expensive. More money should be plit'into
developmental research."

On scientists havini a moral responsibility
for their work: "Scientists, I `think, have the
responsibility to educate their fellow citizens and
to express their dpinions, but not to determine the
fate of the world. I believe the people as a whole,
not just scientists, should determine the fate of
the world."