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In the fall of 1927, a newly hired professor — tall and energetic, with a beautiful young wife and an abundance of self confidence
— arrived at the California Institute of Technology near Los Angeles. His name was Linus Pauling.
He came fresh from Europe, where he had spent more than a year on a Guggenheim Fellowship participating in a scientific revolution.
He did not know it, but he was about to start another at Caltech. During the next twelve years he would reshape the study
of chemistry, lay the groundwork for molecular biology, write one of the most important books in scientific history and define
the nature of the chemical bond. In 1954 he would win a Nobel Prize for his work.
But first he had a class to teach.
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Click images to enlarge
Linus Pauling holding Linus Pauling, Jr., Europe. 1927.
Letter from Henry Allen Moe to Linus Pauling. March 9, 1927.
"When I was in Europe...I received a letter from A. A. Noyes saying that he was writing to offer me an appointment as 'Assistant
Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and Mathematical Physics,' and I accepted it, but by the time that I got here it had been
changed to 'Assistant Professor of Theoretical Chemistry' . . . I don't know what happened with the physics, whether Millikan
objected to my having a joint appointment or whether Noyes decided . . . [Noyes] was preventing me from going to Berkeley,
and he may have decided that he didn't want me associated with the physics department in this way, that perhaps I would shift."
Linus Pauling
March 27, 1964 |
Audio: Comparative Experiences with Urey and Pauli. 1977. (3:59) 
Video: Lecture 1, Part 2. 1957. (5:47)