Linus Pauling's Most Important Lecture
Scientist Linus Pauling: The human brain is like any other muscle.
June 30, 2010 — -- By most measures he was an old man, approaching his 90th birthday, but the legendary man of science still walked with a sense of purpose as he raced to the front of the crowded auditorium to deliver his annual lecture.
There were no professors or university administrators in the room, even though some would probably have risked their tenure to sneak in and hear Linus Pauling talk about chemistry.
The only person to win "two unshared Nobel prizes," as he was so often described, had laid down only one condition for his agreement to give the talk each year at Stanford University.
Only graduate students were permitted in the room. But that year there was one exception. I was a young science writer at the Los Angeles Times at the time, and Pauling had agreed to let me follow him around for three days, which included attending his annual lecture. So I had the hottest ticket in town.
But the lecture wasn't exactly a show stopper. Most of what he said went over my head, and probably over many other young heads in the room, but all of us paid respectful attention.
Especially when the old guy's mind went blank.
He was trying to recall something, but words, and memory failed him. An embarrassed silence filled the room, and Pauling looked a little panicky as he no doubt wondered if all those bright young minds thought he was losing his.
"Well, I guess you would like to know what we are working on in the institute," he said, regaining his composure as he referred to his research lab not far from the campus. He picked up a piece of chalk and went to one corner of the room, which had three walls covered by backboards. At the top of the first board he wrote an equation.
He described one experiment that forced a modification of the equation, which he also wrote. He continued developing the equation until the entire wall was filled. Then the second wall. And then the third.
When he finished, the work that had been his most recent obsession covered all three walls, each equation leading to another, and another, and another.
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