Pauling, Linus

how did atoms bond together to form molecules? In order to find out, he turned from chemical engineering to chemical theory. He enrolled in the first graduate program that offered adequate support, choosing a fledgling Pasadena research school, the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech. Pauling became one of the first chemistry students in an outstanding doctoral program designed and overseen by the famed chemist Arthur Amos Noyes.

Noyes pointed Pauling in the direction of a new experimental technique called x-ray crystallography, which enabled scientists to learn about the sizes and configurations of atoms within molecules and crystals. Pauling earned his Ph.D. in 1925, and then spent 15 months in Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship, intending to study the basics of atomic structure. His timing was propitious. A group of European physicists, including Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Born, and Erwin Schroedinger — all of whom Pauling met–were creating new theories of atomic structure and behavior and fashioning a powerful advance in science called quantum mechanics. Pauling learned the difficult theory, as well as the mathematics that underlay it, and was one of the first to bring this important advance back to the United States. Pauling returned to Caltech in 1927 as a faculty member, and began to apply quantum mechanics to problems of chemical structure and function. His 1939 work, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, encapsulated his ideas and quickly became a standard work in the field.

At the age of 38, Pauling was a full professor and head of the chemistry division at Caltech, the youngest member ever elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and the father of four children (three sons, Linus, Jr., Peter, and Crellin, and a daughter, Linda).

Pauling had started his structural studies by considering inorganic molecules, but during the 1930s he shifted his structural studies to large biomolecules, especially proteins. His biomolecular research continued through World War II, during which Pauling–an avid anti-Nazi — also developed explosives and rocket propellants. He patented an armor-piercing shell, invented an oxygen meter for submarines, and was offered the chance to head the chemistry program at the top-secret Manhattan Project — which he turned down, not because he was averse to the idea of the atomic bomb, but because it would mean uprooting his family. After the war, his feelings towards weapons work changed when, spurred by the pacifist activism of his wife, Ava Helen, Pauling joined other scientists in calling for civilian oversight and limitations on nuclear testing. He met stiff opposition to his efforts in the charged days of the budding Cold War.

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