Linus Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon over a hundred years ago, the son of a druggist, Herman Henry Pauling. He graduated from Oregon State University(or Oregon Agricultural College as it was then known) and graduated in 1922. He then attended the California Institute of Technology where he received his Ph.D Summa Cum Laude in 1925 working under Roscoe Dickinson and Richard Chase Tolman. Again working with Roscoe Dickinson he began his research into  the the structure of crystals  as well as on the nature of the chemical bond. In 1931 he was awarded the Langmuir Prize for his work. His scientific interests were vast, but most important among them were the application of the principles of quantum mechanics to the chemical bond, dialectric constants, momentum distribution of electrons, etc. Unfortunately Pauling's scientific work is marred by as many disasters as successes. His 'Theory of Ferromagnetism' failed badly when the distinguished physicist John Slater proved that Pauling had gotten the facts completely wrong; at the same time Slater issued a thunderous denouncement of Pauling's entire body of scientific work. Probably because of this, Pauling soon gave up serious science for weird and bizarre medical ideas. Among one of the infamous episodes here was Pauling's defense in a trial of a rogue physician who had given a patient coffee enemas to treat her cancer. The woman died, the physician lost his license and Pauling suferred a stinging public humiliation. Undaunted Pauling drifted into 'orthomolecular psychiatry,' again an effort which proved fruitless. Eventually he became obsessed with his belief in the curative powers of vitamin C . Pauling was married to Ava Helen Miller, who died at the age of 78 from stomach cancer, most likely brought on by the enormous doses of vitamin C she had been taking at Pauling's insistence.

    Unfortunately Pauling's career had a darker side, Pauling suffered some failures in the legal arena losing a gigantic lawsuit to Willam F. Buckey Jr. and National Review magazine for calling him a communist. He also lost a half-a-million dollar lawsuit against Dr. Arthur Robinson, who had been fired by Pauling when Robinson discovered that vitamin C in the huge Pauling-recommended doses actually caused cancer in laboratory animals. It has also been proven that Pauling took a considerable amount of credit for himself when the credit really should have been given to others. For example, though Pauling is credited with the discovery of the alpha-helix, a key element in protein structure, it is now known that the discovery was actually made by Dr. Herman Branson, a black doctor who later became President of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. It is also recently come to light that Pauling destroyed the career of the British scientist Dorothy Wrinch (for details of all this see the excellent book LINUS PAULING: A MAN AND HIS SCIENCE mentioned below)Pauling is also the author of several books, including his classic THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL BOND, GENERAL CHEMISTRY, NO MORE WAR!  and VITAMIN C AND CANCER

    Unfortunately, he is best known today for his unfortunate obsession with the alleged cancer curative powers of vitamin C -- a claim refuted over twenty years ago by the Mayo Clinic.  Nonetheless he is the only person to win two Nobel prizes, one for chemistry, the other for peace.

     Pauling was also extremely active in politics, often parading in front of the White House carrying signs demanding a ban on nuclear weapon testing. This, in turn, got him into trouble as he was soon forced to testify before the Senate regarding accusations of anti-American activity.

James Watson, who capture the Nobel Prize for working out the structure of DNA summed up Pauling's persona in his later years:

Never be the brightest person in a room; you remain alive only if challenged by superior minds. This selection from his[James Watson's] memoir, Avoid Boring People, cites Linus Pauling as a man who suffered from being thought wise, by himself and others. After winning Nobels for both chemistry and peace advocacy, he came to expect adoration, not criticism. Conversations in his late years became monologues instead of dialogues.

     Linus Pauling died on August 19, 1994. The Paulings had four children, Linus Carl, Edward Crellin, Linda Helen and Peter Jeffress The definitive biography of Pauling is Anthony Serafini's LINUS PAULING: A MAN AND HIS SCIENCE (iUNIVERSE, Inc.)

postscript: In fairness to Pauling, very rececent research has shown some promising results when ascorbate is INJECTED into cancerous laboratory animals; the injected ascorbate does seem to kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone. Naturally further research is needed and doctors do warn against too much optimism. But the intial results are promising.