Linus Carl Pauling (chemist and biologist)

Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was an American quantum chemist and biochemist. Pauling is widely regarded as the premier chemist of the twentieth century. He pioneered the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry (quantum mechanics can, in principle, describe all of chemistry and molecular biology) and in 1954 was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He also made important contributions to crystal and protein structure determination and was one of the founders of molecular biology. He came near to discovering the "double helix," the ultrastructure of DNA, when Watson and Crick made the discovery in 1953. Pauling is noted as a versatile scholar for his expertise in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, metallurgy, immunology, anesthesiology, psychology, debate, radioactive decay, and the aftermath of nuclear warfare, in addition to quantum mechanics and molecular biology.

Pauling received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above-ground nuclear testing and is the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes—that is, neither of the prizes was shared with another recipient. Later in life, he became an advocate for greatly increased consumption of vitamin C and other nutrients. He generalized his ideas to define orthomolecular medicine, which is still regarded as unorthodox by conventional medicine. He popularized his concepts, analysis, research, and insights in several successful, but controversial books about vitamin C and orthomolecular medicine.

Famous quote: If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to

learn is which ones to throw away.

Linus Pauling «http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling» February 2007