March 26, 1957 - Linus Pauling Day-by-Day

Check from AHP to Howard Price for $8.78. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, February 1956-December 1957), Box #4.024, Folder #24.2]

Check from AHP to San Luis Butane Distributors for $135.66. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, February 1956-December 1957), Box #4.024, Folder #24.2]

Handwritten note from Charlotte S. Taylor to LP, RE: Tells LP that she is applying for a National Science Foundation grant for the summer institute at Claremont College. Asks if LP could write to Professor W. E. Pequegnat about her, saying that she could benefit from this. Explains that since her family is all through college and married, she is ready to do more studying. Encloses a photograph. [Letter from LP to Taylor, April 2, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (T: Individual Correspondence. (Tamm - Taylor, W. H.)), Box #405, Folder #405.5]

Letter from Bernard Berelson, Director, Behavioral Sciences Program, the Ford Foundation, to LP RE: States they are planning a series of brochures on the programs with their support of research in mental health and their writer, Mr. Leonard Engel would like to learn more. [Letter from LP to Bernard Berelson March 29, 1957] [Filed under LP Science: Box #11.088, Folder #88.3]

Letter from Dr. Percy L. Julian, The Julian Laboratories, Inc to Dr. Alden H. Emery, Executive Secretary, American Chemical Society RE: Protests a meeting planned in Miami that is excluding members of his lab because they are of color. Notifies him that no one from his lab will be attending because of the insulting policies of the ACS. Letter included in Dr. Julian's letter to LP referenced above. [Letter from Dr. Julian to LP March 26, 1957, Letter from LP to Dr. Julian April 1, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (J: Correspondence, 1957), #192.23]

Letter from Dr. Percy L. Julian, The Julian Laboratories, Inc to LP RE: Requests the privilege of bringing his son with him on a visit to the Cal Tech labs in April. States his son is a high school junior and has an interest in chemistry and attending Cal Tech. [Letter from Dr. Julian to Dr. Emery March 26, 1957, Letter from LP to Dr. Julian April 1, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (J: Correspondence, 1957), #192.23]

Letter from Dr. Richard W. Lippman to Mrs. Frank R. Riva [Margaret M.] RE: At the moment, there are no plans to research the effect of the paternal environment on the offspring but they are going to study the question of mutation and maternal effects. [Letter from Riva to Lippman March 15, 1957] [Filed under LP Science: Orthomolecular Medicine and Mental Health: Materials re: Ford Foundation grants for the study of mental disorders, 1955-1956: Box #11.089, Folder 89.7]

Letter from Harlow W. Ades, University of Texas, to LP RE: Informs LP that Joe Hill of Baylor Hospital in Dallas is independent of their university, so if he asks LP to make a speech, LP should feel free to reply to him in any way his schedule or wishes dictate. [Letter from Ades to LP March 7, 1957, Letter from LP to Ades May 8, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s.20]

Letter from I.W. Kinney, President, Metals Refining Corporation to LP RE: Requests guidance in how to get financing for some research he is trying to do. Explains that he is working on "a system of atomic models." [Letter from LP to Mr. Kinney March 29, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (K: Correspondence, 1957), #201.1]

Letter from LP to Dr. Alexander Rich of the National Institute of Mental Health. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (R: Individual Correspondence, Reynolds-Riley), #329.3]

March 26, 1957

Dr. Alexander Rich

National Institute of Mental Health

Bethesda 14, Maryland

Dear Alex:

I have recently been working over your structure of collagen, and have got into some difficulties.

First, let me say that it seems to me that your three-strand structure (either I or II) looks very promising. As you have pointed out, it is closely related to your polyglycine structure, and it accounts in a nice way for the necessity of having one-third of the residues glycine.

I think that I have checked practically all of the points that you raised. I have had difficulty with only one. Both in your letter to Nature and in your letters to me you said that two out of these three positions could be occupied by proline or hydroxyproline. I have not been able to see how this could be done, except by large distortions of the structure, involving breaking one of the hydrogen bonds, which are already only one-half as numerous as in the structure that I have been working on for a good number of years. It seems to me that the methylene group of the glycine residue has to be the alpha carbon close to the axis of your structure. This alpha carbon cannot then serve as part of a proline or hydroxyproline ring, and only the other two are left. But one of the other two has the adjacent groups, CO and NH, both involved in hydrogen bonds, and accordingly this alpha carbon also cannot be part of a proline or hydroxyproline ring, unless the hydrogen bond is broken. This leaves the third alpha carbon available for use in forming the ring. I have not been able to find any good basis for deciding between your structures I and II, except for the argument that you have presented, that one of the structures permits the hydroxyl group of hydroxyproline to form a hydrogen bond. In my models the hydrogen bond that looks best has been a carbonyl in the same polypeptide chain. It seems to me that considerable distortion is required to form a hydrogen bond to a carbonyl in an adjacent chain.

I shall look forward to hearing from you what the explanation is of my difficulty in getting proline and hydroxyproline into adjacent positions in your structure.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:LL

Letter from Samuel D. Freeman, Jewish Center Lecture Bureau, to LP RE: Invites him to take part in the 1957-58 forum sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Cincinnati, in which they discuss major problems and issues in America. Requests that if he accept, he indicate when he would be able to do it. [Letter from LP to Mr. Freeman April 9, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (F: Correspondence, 1957), #129.1]

Note from L.L. Chapin to LP RE: Requests the title of the talk he plans to give to Nu Sigma Nu. [Letter from LP to Dr. Waring February 5, 1957, Letter from LP to Mr. Chapin March 29, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s.15]

Reprint by Alfred Nisonoff and David Pressman: "The Annular Nitrogen of Pyridine as a Determinant of Immunologic Specificity." Appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 79, 5565 (1957). [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Pressman, David: Reprints, Typescripts and Research Materials, 1952-1961), #309.8]

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