In existographies, Linus Pauling (1901-1994) (IQ:190|#29) [RGM:182|1,500+] [GCE:#] (EPD:F9) (CR:85) was an American chemical engineer noted for his work on the nature of the chemical bond and for his later years debates and discussions on the chemical and thermodynamic nature of the question “what is life?”, such as in his 1970 biochemistry chapter, and his 1987 conference presentation “Schrodinger’s Contribution to Chemistry and Biology” wherein he attacks — or more correctly "rips apart" — Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s 1943 negative entropy formulation solution to the question of what life is, a solution that Schrodinger had to famously defend in his infamous Note to Chapter 6. [1] |
| The "hook and eye" atomic bonding model, the model that was taught to Pauling in 1917 as an undergraduate chemical engineering student at Oregon Agricultural College. |
See main: History of chemical bonding theoryInterestingly, and some might say astonishingly, in 1917, as an undergraduate chemical engineering student, at Oregon Agricultural College, Pauling was taught the Dalton-version of hook-and-eye bonding model, which was the vogue description of bonds between atoms at the time. Each atom had a certain number of hooks that allowed it to attach to other atoms, and a certain number of eyes that allowed other atoms to attach to it. A chemical bond resulted when a hook and eye connected. Pauling, however, of course, wasn't satisfied with this archaic method and looked to the newly-emerging field of quantum physics for a new method. [2] By 1932, Pauling had developed the hybrid orbital model of chemical bonding and his famous 1939 textbook The Nature of the Chemical Bond, which he interestingly dedicated to Gilbert Lewis, would go on to become referred to as “Bible of modern chemistry”.
“What is it that distinguishes a living organism, such as a man or some other animal or a plant, from an inanimate object, such as a piece of granite?”In response to this question, in a somewhat ambivalent manner, he answers that it must have internal metabolic reactions and the capacity for reproduction. He then abjures from this position, in some sense, by bring up the question of whether or not the virus (or virus molecule) is alive? He comments on this:
“If we were to define a living organism as a material structure with the power of reproducing itself, then we would include the plant viruses among the living organisms. If, however, we require that living organisms also have the property of carrying on some metabolic reactions, then the plant viruses would be described simply as molecules, with molecular weight of the order of magnitude of 10,000,000, that have a molecular structure as to permit them to catalyze a chemical reaction, in the proper medium, leading to the synthesis of molecules identical with themselves. The giant virus particles or molecules may be described as aggregates of smaller molecules, tied together in a definite way.”
“[Humans can] be described simply as molecules, with molecular weight of the order of magnitude of (add), that have a molecular structure as to permit them to catalyze a chemical reaction, in the proper medium, leading to the synthesis of molecules identical with themselves.”
“By virtually any standard of measure, Linus Pauling ranks as one of the most-influential and celebrated scientists of the twentieth century. Pauling’s The Nature of the Chemical Bond, in its three editions and numerous translations, is the most cited scientific book of all time.”— Zeleck Herman (1997), “Force of Nature: the Life of Linus Pauling: Linus Pauling in His Own Words” [5]
“Only when I began studying chemical engineering at Oregon Agricultural College did I realize that I myself might discover something new about the nature of the world.”— Linus Pauling (c.1960) (Ѻ)
