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By Jenna Moots 
Linus Carl Pauling attended public elementary and public high school in the town of Condon in the city of Portland, Oregon. After his early schooling, he entered Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis (now known as Oregon State College) in 1917. Upon graduation in 1922, he received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. In 1919 until 1920, he was a full-time teacher of quantitative analysis at the state college. After his teaching job concluded at the state college, he began research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, earning his PhD in 1925. He also received a PhD (summa cum laude) in chemistry, with minors in physics and mathematics from his colleges. After he returned from his trip to Europe to meet some of the great scientists of his day (Bohr, Bragg, and Sommerfeld), he became a full professor at Caltech in 1931, but left teaching in 1936 to become the director at Caltech’s Gates and Crellin Laboratories. Pauling continued to work at the laboratories for the next 22 years.
Since 1919 he had discovered that his interest lay in the field of molecular structure and the nature of chemical bonds. In 1921, he suggested and attempted to carry out an experiment on the orientation of iron atoms by a magnetic field through the electrolytic deposition of a layer of iron in a strong magnetic field and the determination of the orientation of the iron crystallises by polishing and etching the deposit and microscopic examination of the etch figures. He began in 1922 the experimental determination of the structures of some crystals, and started theoretical work on the nature of the chemical bond.
Pauling also investigated electronegativity of atoms, or how atoms attract electrons. This was also linked with his study of polarization in chemical bonds. The scale he used for electronegativity ranged from 0 to 4.0. He discovered that an atom with high electronegativity pulls electrons toward it and therefore the molecule becomes polarized, causing it to leave one end of the molecule with a negative charge and one end with a positive charge. He determined that if hydrogen would have a positive or negative charge when reacting with certain substances, this would help to predict how substances will react to water.
In the 1950s Pauling helped urge a stop to testing on nuclear weapons. For his attempts to stop the testings he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Finally, in the 1970s Pauling became an ardent advocate for huge doses of vitamin C, speculating that it could help prevent the common cold and help fight off cancer. Some people came to believe his exploits on the manner in vitamin C overshadowed his accomplishments in chemistry. Without the accomplishments of Linus Pauling, who knows where our understanding of common chemistry and medical history would stand today. Certainly, nowhere near where they do today. Books by Linus Pauling
- The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals. An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry. Jenna Moots' Thoughts on Linus Pauling Good god i have now added Linus Pauling to my hero list!!!! HE IS THE CUTEST OLD GUY EEEEVVVEERRRR i am in love with him!!!! i kno thats sooooo pathetic but omg hes sooo sweet looking!!! i wish he was my pap! ne wayz this is all the "scientific info" i found on him and watever u do u HAAAAAAVVVVVVEEEEEE to use the picture i gave u of him with the DNA thing with the orange in the air lol its sooooo CUTE! |
In 1931 he published a paper called “The Nature of the Chemical Bond.” In this paper, Pauling used quantum mechanics to explain how atoms share electrons and how the electrons interact in a covalent bond, the link that holds atoms together in a molecule. In his study of molecules he examined the structures of molecules and related quantum mechanical theories to the angles and distances he found between atoms in a molecule. When Pauling studied molecules, he used electron diffraction, or the process of studying the patterns that a stream of electrons produces when it passes between atoms in the molecules of a given sample. He saw that as electrons pass between atoms and through the molecules, the atoms affect the path of the electrons in a way that the electron pattern reveals the inner structure of the molecule. Pauling also observed how the molecules reacted to chemical reactions, or a region of space affected by a magnet.
In the 1940s Pauling turned his attention to the chemistry of living tissues and systems. He used his knowledge of molecular studies to aid him in this new chemistry study. He and Robert Corey worked on the structures of amino acids. They proposed that many proteins have structures held together with hydrogen bonds, causing them to have a helical shape. By discovering this, he helped with Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double-helix structure of human DNA. In his research on blood, Pauling investigated immunology, or how bodies react to bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances. Through this, he helped discover sickle-cell anemia. He learned that sickle cells are abnormal and differ in electrical charges. To conclude his studies in the 1940s, he researched anesthesia.