Linus Pauling - Legacy

Legacy

Pauling died of prostate cancer on August 19, 1994, at 7:20 pm at home in Big Sur, California. He was 93 years old. A grave marker for him is in Oswego Pioneer Cemetery in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Pauling was included in a list of the 20 greatest scientists of all time by the magazine New Scientist, with Albert Einstein being the only other scientist from the twentieth century on the list. Gautam R. Desiraju, the author of the Millennium Essay in Nature, claimed that Pauling was one of the greatest thinkers and visionaries of the millennium, along with Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. Pauling is notable for the diversity of his interests: quantum mechanics, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, protein structure, molecular biology, and medicine. In all these fields, and especially on the boundaries between them, he made decisive contributions. His work on chemical bonding marks the beginning of modern quantum chemistry, and many of his contributions like hybridization and electronegativity have become part of standard chemistry textbooks. His valence bond approach fell short of accounting quantitatively for some of the characteristics of molecules, such as the paramagnetic nature of oxygen and the color of organometallic complexes, and would later be superseded by the Molecular Orbital Theory of Robert Mulliken. The Valence Bond theory still exists in its modern form and competes with the Molecular Orbital Theory and Density Functional Theory (DFT) for describing the chemical phenomena. Pauling's work on crystal structure contributed significantly to the prediction and elucidation of the structures of complex minerals and compounds. His discovery of the alpha helix and beta sheet is a fundamental foundation for the study of protein structure.

Francis Crick acknowledged Pauling as the "father of molecular biology" His discovery of sickle cell anemia as a "molecular disease" opened the way toward examining genetically acquired mutations at a molecular level.

Pauling's work on the molecular basis of disease and its treatment is being carried on by a number of researchers, notably those at the Linus Pauling Institute, which lists a dozen principal investigators and faculty who study the role of micronutrients and phytochemicals in health and disease.

Items named after Pauling include Pauling Street in Foothill Ranch, California, Linus Pauling Drive in Hercules, California, Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Hall at Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California, Linus Pauling Middle School in Corvallis, Oregon, and Pauling Field, a small airfield located in Condon, Oregon, where Pauling spent his youth. Additionally, the Linus Pauling Institute and also a wing of The Valley Library at Oregon State University bear his name. There is a psychedelic rock band in Houston, Texas, named The Linus Pauling Quartet. Pauling Road in Monee, Illinois is another homage.

The Caltech Chemistry Department renamed room 22 of Gates Hall the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall, since Linus spent so much time there.

Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux kernel, is named after Pauling.

On March 6, 2008, the United States Postal Service released a 41 cent stamp honoring Pauling designed by artist Victor Stabin. His description reads: "A remarkably versatile scientist, structural chemist Linus Pauling (1901–1994) won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the nature of the chemical bond linking atoms into molecules. His work in establishing the field of molecular biology; his studies of hemoglobin led to the classification of sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease." The other scientists on this sheet include Gerty Cori, biochemist, Edwin Hubble, astronomer, and John Bardeen, physicist.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008 that Pauling would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place December 15, 2008. Pauling's son was asked to accept the honor in his place.

Pauling appears in the 2006 novel Visibility by Boris Starling, who later named his son Linus.