Friday, October 23, 2009

Linus Pauling


Linus Pauling (1901-1994), the only individual to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century.

Pauling was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Prize for Peace.





During the 2nd World War, Pauling worked on military research and development. However, when the war ended he became particularly concerned about the further development and possible use of atomic weapons and with the destruction inflicted on the world by war in general. Ava Helen Pauling, Linus's wife, was a pacifist and in time he came to share her views. Pauling soon began to express his concerns with the effects of nuclear fallout and in 1962, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign against above ground nuclear testing. His beliefs were not without controversy at the time and he was criticized by many for his actions, within and outside the US Government.











His many books include The Nature of the Chemical Bond, one of the most cited sources in scientific history, General Chemistry, and Vitamin C and the Common Cold.
A Picket Today, Tomorrow a Guest. Washington: Atomic Scientist Linus Pauling, who will be President Kennedy's guest tomorrow for Nobel prize winners, pickets the Executive Mansion today. He joins a mass demonstration protesting the resumption of U.S. atmospheric nuclear tests. Asked whether he thought it unusual to picket the white house one day and attend dinner there the next, he quipped, "I don't do any of them regularly."

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