Wednesday is Linus Pauling's Birthday

[michael_va]

In case you didn't know who he was, here is Wikipedia's article on Linus Pauling.

I'll be in the Likwid Lounge at New City after 20:00, if any of you would like to join me in lifting a glass or two or even three to the memory of this amazing man and fellow atheist

Comments

[randomdreams]

He very nearly discovered DNA, and it was primarily because of Rosalind Franklin's work that Watson and Crick got there first: Pauling *knew* helices and would've recognized her x-ray crystallography results almost immediately.

Pauling's Vitamin C advocacy was probably the low point of his life, as regards astounding achievement and insight.

[michael_va]

What you think of as the low point of his academic life was still so far above the norm for the general population. Besides, at that time, he was quite elderly. I would say his attempt to design a commercially successful electric car was his only clear failure, rather that having been beaten to the press by Watson and Crick. I also think that people often confuse the use of mega-doses of specific vitamins as treatments for illnesses with their regular use at lower levels as balanced nutritional supplements. These are two completely different applications of the same idea, both of which have been demonstrated to have benefits.