Chapter 14 11 eagle

orderly world Pauling first received a letter from Albert Schönfries in December 1938.The letter was written in German, and there was a hint of panic in the restrained tone.Schonfries is Jewish.His father was a well-known German scientist, a pioneer of X-ray crystallography, and a friend of Laue.Schönfries himself worked in the legal profession, serving as a German judge for ten years before Hitler's Nuremberg Laws stripped him of that right.He thought it was madness, but like many Germans he felt that sooner or later it would pass.He sees his idleness as a mandatory vacation to spend more time with his three children and take a few chemistry classes.Then he was told that Jews were not allowed to read. On a icy night in November 1938, the assassinations and beatings began, with shattered glass and bleeding heads everywhere.Schonfries woke up.Like thousands of Jews, he tried desperately to leave Germany.Laue told him to write letters to scientists in the United States, including Pauling, hoping that someone could apply for a student visa for him.

Schönfries was one of many letters Pauling received from desperate German scholars in the late 1930s; powerless.He paid special attention to the letter from Schönfries, since Laue had written to him asking for his help.Pauling approached committees dedicated to German refugee problems, but found them ineffective.Pauling tried to get in touch with Schonfries, but there was no news.It was not until four months later that Pauling heard from Schonflis again, when he was already in a refugee camp in the Netherlands.Schönfries writes that he was penniless, unable to withdraw his savings from German banks, and was very low in the lottery to immigrate to the United States. "At the moment I live here without any means of earning a living and I'm very depressed... My three children are 6, 8 and 10 years old and they can't go to school here and I don't have a chance of getting any job. . . . I implore you to do whatever you can to save me from the fire." Pauling immediately wrote back, promising to do what he could; he wrote to the Council of International Education and the Committee to Help Refugees.It was relatively easy, however, to bring sophisticated German scientists into the United States, and as for ex-judges, that was another story.Pauling offered to find a source of funds to house the family in Pasadena, and tried to get the Schonfries children out first.But he couldn't get immigration officials to expedite the process.He wrote to Schönfries in the spring of 1939, telling him that he would continue his efforts.His letter was returned with an "incorrect address" stamp on it.

Horror stories like these were told by many Jewish scientists who came to America starting in the mid-1930s.Under the pretext of maintaining the purity of the nation, Hitler expelled or imprisoned Jewish professors and German scholars who sympathized with the Jews, tearing German universities into pieces.In the process, Hitler destroyed much of German science.Many Jewish scholars imitated Einstein and came to the United States to make their home.Many non-Jewish scientists, including Sommerfeld, went out of their way to help and denounced the Nazis early on.Some scientists, like Heisenberg, remained silent.Still others have led purges.It was a nightmare that shook Pauling's faith in scientific rationality.

By 1939, Pauling felt the need to stop Hitler's crimes.He wrote to a British friend in September: "The entire American people approve of Britain's actions against Hitler. I hope that the democratic forces will unite and end this disaster as soon as possible." After the fall of France in the spring of 1940, Bowe Lin's worries deepened.He is convinced that if the United States does not intervene directly, Britain will also fall, because Hitler has the most powerful battleship formation in the world and has absolute command of the sea. The question now is how to act.Scientists have traditionally been politically indifferent, seeking verifiable facts and leaving world events to politicians.Staying out of political vortex is an unspoken law of science that is tacitly tolerated because it is a natural and logical extension of the scientific attitude: most scientists feel that they should remain impartial and objective in any public role , as they do in scientific research, they should be obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge and leave clueless or unverifiable political issues to the politicians.That's not to say that scientists don't have political views; it's just that they don't advertise their views.Pauling also holds this attitude.Although under the influence of Eva Helen, he leaned to the left in the early 1930s, but in public, he never preached or made any political remarks.

Yet his perception of the role scientists should play in public affairs is subtly changing. In 1939 he read The Social Role of Science by John Desmond Bernal, an English crystallographer.In this long treatise, Bernal criticizes the incompetence of science in dealing with world affairs in detail and severely, and completely destroys the concept of science as a sanctuary of reason undisturbed by worldly chores: "It was always believed that scientific research will lead to life. The state of affairs was constantly improving," Bernal said, "but first World War I, then the economic crisis, showed that science could be used for destructive purposes just as easily. There were also growing calls to stop scientific research and as the only means of sustaining a tolerable civilization. Faced with these criticisms, scientists were forced, for the first time, to seriously consider how the work they were doing could be effectively linked to the social and economic development taking place around them. ’” Bernal was a staunch Marxist and an advocate for a world government of unity.Instead of contributing to a capitalist economy, he proposed that scientists emulate a socialist model of using their talents to serve the masses.He also sees scientists themselves as an obstacle to the creation of a socialist utopia.According to Bernal, a scientist is at best a submissive citizen belonging to the middle class, and at worst becomes a vassal of capitalists, "employed by the state, enterprises or some semi-independent institutions, such as direct or Universities that are indirectly dependent on the state or corporations. Thus, the real freedom of scientists is limited to what their employers tolerate because of the need to earn a living.” Scientists must organize to take control of their own destinies, Bernal continues , recognize their social responsibilities and take corresponding actions. "Let science be free, and it will contribute more effectively to the progress of all mankind than, as it does now, to the interests of a few."

Pauling read the book in one sitting, using it as a topic in a seminar he taught at Caltech.He agrees with most of the views in the book.Under Eva's influence, his interest in the world expanded to questions of fundamental rights and politics in America; now he came to believe that scientists might have something useful to say about these issues.Like Bernal, he believes that most developments in the modern world are rooted in scientific advances, and that scientists understand these advances better than anyone else, so they should play a very important role in the public debate.Scientists also possess a skill—the scientific method—that enables dispassionate and rational analysis of data.In this way, as long as there is enough information, he believes that scientists can use their skills to think usefully about political or social issues, such as how to deal with Hitler.

Then Eva encouraged Pauling to read "The Modern Commonwealth".American political journalist Clarence Strait describes the dangers of totalitarianism and proposes a new countermeasure: the unity of democracies around the world into a single entity, on the model of the American Federation.Strait's tantalizing prospect of extending the basics of the U.S. Constitution to the globe caused a moderate stir, sparking a movement for a "Modern Commonwealth."By 1940, three thousand members in sixty chapters across the country had joined the movement.Eva became an active advocate of Strait's philosophy.Both became founding members of the Pasadena chapter, and many afternoons Eva sat behind a counter in the chapter's downtown office down the street.

At the urging of his wife, Pauling made his first political speech in 1940.His topic was the necessity of a "modern federation" to contain fascism and prepare for the next war.At first Pauling found it awkward to speak on a topic that had nothing to do with science, but he soon became complacent.In junior high school auditoriums or living rooms, to small audiences, he would speak with a passion unbefitting of a scientific lecture.This made him relive the excitement and satisfaction of speaking as a senior student representative at Oregon Agricultural College. "Shouldn't our country help Britain fight the enemy immediately when the enemy is attacking Britain, and may turn against us after defeating Britain?" he asked his audience. "It means going to war, and we are idealists, pacifists by nature, against war. But we're all going to be dragged into this war anyway -- we're actively preparing for it, and do any of us think we'll always be Won't you get caught up in this war? . . . The vicious spread of fascism—in general terms, dictatorship—must be eradicated from this orderly world.” At the end of his speech, he made a moving statement Vision, a stable, democratic world government leading a peaceful and orderly planet.

Pauling believed that the world was "ordered," and Hitler's crime was to break that order.This idea unified Pauling's nascent political thought with his scientific outlook: he believed that the human world could be known and rationalized just as much as the molecular world.The crux of the matter is again structure.If humanity lived in a world with the right structure—nationalism replaced by world government, capitalism replaced by scientific socialism, dictatorship replaced by democracy—then human suffering would be reduced and war would cease.The world will be a healthier and better place.Some of these goals were out of reach, but Hitler was an imminent threat, and the necessary action must be taken now.

Pauling's increasingly radical left left him in the minority at both Caltech and Republican-dominated Pasadena. In the fall of 1940, Polytechnic students managed to organize a campaign-year debate in which dissident professors were invited to defend their respective presidential candidates.They had trouble finding candidates to support Roosevelt and finally turned to Pauling, who agreed to try.The economics professors at Caltech who championed Wendell Wilkie were helpless.John Edsel, a Harvard professor who was visiting Caltech at the time, recalled: "Pauling got the upper hand everywhere, and it was a dazzling show." But Wilkie ended up at Pasa Pasadena was won by a Republican nominee in virtually every year Roosevelt ran.Still, Pauling found it fun to be a villain, too.

Pauling's greatest concern remained the impending war.For a while he considered joining the National Association of Scientists.It was a left-wing group, an offshoot of a British organization Bernal founded in the late 1930s, to encourage scientists to think about the social implications of their work and to mobilize them to use science for social good rather than war.The National Association of Scientists included some well-known scholars, but in 1940 the association published an article in the journal Science urging the United States to remain neutral in the European war, which cost it Pauling's support, because he believed that only through war To defeat Hitler.He publicly protested the plan of the Institute of Scientific Workers to "keep the peace at all costs", and he also participated in the Friends of America organization that helped the Allies defend the American Association and the Chinese people. Most American scientists share Pauling's view of fascism.As the Blitz swept across Europe in the spring of 1940, Frank Jewett, president of the National Academy of Sciences and a Caltech alumnus, began lobbying Washington to mobilize scientists to serve the war effort.The U.S. government took this advice and created the National Council for Defense Research, the equivalent of the National Council for Scientific Research that Hale had created during World War I, to organize and fund national war research.Carnegie Institution president Guineva Bush, an MIT-educated electrical engineer, was tapped to lead the organization, which merged with the Medical Research Council in 1941 to create the Agency for Scientific Research and Development. This ushered in a new era of collaboration between the American scientific community and government.As the war became more and more serious, Bush began to convene a group of advisers to decide where to invest tens of billions in defense spending.Richard Tolman of Caltech was invited to chair the Armor and Ordnance Division of the National Defense Research Council.He came to the capital in the summer of 1940 and recommended Charles Lawson, a nuclear physicist at the Academy, as his deputy. Pauling was also invited to Washington, but he was asked to advise, not to be an official. In October 1940, he and other named chemists participated in a seminar on the needs of war convened by the National Defense Research Committee Division II in Washington.Pauling finally felt that he could do something useful in the fight against the Nazis. He listened intently as a group of military officers described to researchers some of the breakthroughs they hoped for, including new drugs, more powerful explosives, and more precise surveillance and detection. instrument.In particular, Pauling noticed a fatal problem in submarines described by a naval officer.There was no easy way to measure the oxygen levels in those tin cans, making it difficult to monitor safe and effective levels of oxygen during long dive voyages, the officer said.Too little oxygen makes sailors feel weak and drowsy; too much oxygen increases the risk of an explosion. On the return train, Pauling thought about how to design an oxygen measuring instrument.Oxygen has unusual magnetic properties—it is attracted to magnets, while most other general gases are somewhat repelled—and Pauling had successfully exploited this property of oxygen in his work on hemoglobin.Maybe an oxygen gauge can be made from this.The higher the oxygen content in the air sample, the more attracted it is to the magnet.But how do you measure it?Small changes in the oxygen content cause very little change in the magnetic field, especially compared to the mechanical force required to turn the needle on the dial. He suddenly thought of Archimedes.Two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher measured the density of a liquid by suspending a solid body in it: the denser the surrounding liquid, the more buoyant objects within it will experience.By measuring the difference between the buoyant and unbuoyant objects, the density of the liquid can be calculated.Pauling reasoned that if the liquid is replaced with air, and a test body that can reflect the change of the magnetic field is suspended in it, then the change of the oxygen content in the air will cause the test body to change.He started sketching.The test body must be small and delicately balanced to measure subtle changes.Pauling imagined a small glass dumbbell, filled with air at both ends, and balanced on a very thin quartz fiber.The magnetic field can be obtained from an ordinary horseshoe magnet.Thread the quartz fibers through the poles of the magnet.Thus any change in the magnetic properties of the air surrounding the test body causes it to reorient itself in the magnetic field, rotating until twisting of the fibers brings it into a new equilibrium.The degree of rotation can be very small, and perhaps the change can be amplified by shining a beam of light at the test body and reflecting it off the dial. He didn't think it was a bad idea, especially for a theorist with no experience building experimental instruments.Once back in Pasadena, he handed over the sketches to Ruben Wood, a more mechanically talented colleague, to complete the work.The difficulty was making the small glass dumbbell and balancing it on the fibers; after that was done, Wood glued a small piece of glass to the dumbbell to reflect the beam, passed the small dumbbell through the magnets, and the whole device was assembled into a Inside a bell-shaped glass jar, a flashlight was used to provide the light source, and a small piece of paper was pasted on the wall of the bottle as a scale.It only took him a few days to make the sample. A few weeks later, Pauling was back on the train to Washington, carrying the first Pauling oxygen meter with him.He was both proud and a little uneasy.On his first night out of Pasadena, he woke up suddenly with a premonition that his design might fail.He turned on the overhead light, carefully removed the gauge, and turned on the flashlight.The oxygen level indicated on the paper was obviously too low; the instrument must have been damaged in the rush to board the train.It's too elaborate to be practical. "I'd better get out and go back to Pasadena," Pauling thought.He looked out of the window in despair.Suddenly he let out a long breath.There are mountains as far as the eye can see.The train is crossing the Continental Divide.The gauge is accurate - it correctly reflects the low oxygen levels at high altitudes.He put the gauge back on and fell asleep again with relief. After the officers saw that the instrument worked, they immediately ordered hundreds of Pauling oxygen measuring instruments from Pauling.He applied for a patent and then had Sturtevant organize a small factory in his laboratory.Workers blow molten glass into tiny balls of dumbbells, balancing them on barely visible fibers.The job is extremely difficult.First, all the air needs to be blown up to make the molten glass expand; once the glass starts to expand, the blowing must be stopped immediately, otherwise the glass ball will be too big.They found only one master graduate student who could bite the blowpipe, coordinate the diaphragm, lungs, and mouth, and blow out a decent sphere—about one in two hundred times. Pauling realized that doing so would not help.He persuaded the innovative Arnold Beckmann, professor of chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute and expert in instrumentation—inventor of the Beckman pH meter and founder of the Beckman Instruments Company—to take charge of production.Beckman hired Pauling's workers, personally designed the world's smallest glass blowing machine, and found a way to pull out silicon filaments invisible to the naked eye-workers only had to fold a piece of paper Place it where the silicon filament is to find it.The measuring instruments he made were very accurate.Although the U.S. Navy continued to debate technical specifications until the end of the war and was never a major buyer, the British Navy ordered several hundred sets.This instrument is also used in aviation medicine, industrial plants and incubators for premature babies.Caltech, Pauling, Sturtevant, and Wood shared royalties from the sale—an income that for many years was the main source of Caltech's royalties.But it was Beckmann who really made the big bucks with this invention.He sold the company that made the oxygen meters for $1 million in the mid-1950s. Diet plan prescribed by Dr. Addis In March 1941, one month after Pauling's 40th birthday, he received another important award ten years after the Langmuir Prize: the William Nichols Gold Medal of the New York Chapter of the American Chemical Society.Pauling -- who the press release called "a preeminent theoretical chemist in America and the world" -- was once again the youngest person to receive the medal.At the time, the award was considered the highest honor in American chemistry. The award ceremony became a New York chemistry event, culminating in a gala dinner at the Pennsylvania Hotel.The participating chemists sipped coffee while Pauling's old friend and Caltech roommate Emmett told anecdotes from their early student days on stage.Coming up after Emmett was the great Columbian chemist Joseph Mayer, who gave a brief account of Pauling's academic achievements. When it was Pauling's turn to speak, everyone was expecting the famous orator to captivate the audience with his grand speeches again, but those who were familiar with him soon realized that something was wrong.Pauling's face looked puffy.His voice was flat and flat.He said that when he opened his eyes that morning he was surprised to find that they were swollen shut, and teased himself that politicians were always blind.But he looked exhausted, and there was nothing funny about that.His speech was surprisingly short, and he returned to his hotel room early. At a dinner at Moskey's home the next night, Pauling admitted that he felt tired and had put on 20 pounds in the past few weeks, making it difficult to button his shirt collar and put on his shoes.Among the guests was a cardiologist from the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine.He pulled Pauling aside, told him that swelling like his suggested a possible heart problem, and asked if he could check Pauling right away.They hid in one of Mosky's bedrooms, and Pauling lay on the floor as the doctor felt his limbs and listened to his heartbeat.The results are confusing.Pauling's cardiovascular system appeared to be intact, but the extreme swelling must have portended something.The doctor asked Pauling to come to the institute's own office the next day for a thorough examination. Eva was so worried that she accompanied Pauling to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and had him undergo every test the doctors there could provide.After hours of punctures and blood draws, Pauling and Eva nervously awaited the results of the tests.Finally they were ushered into a room full of stern-looking doctors.They sat down.A doctor said that Pauling's condition looked very serious.His kidneys may have been infected with Bright's disease, which increasingly incapacitates the body's ability to filter impurities from the blood.As a result, fluid pools and causes edema.But the problem could be worse than that.Tests showed an unusually high amount of protein excreted in his urine, suggesting possible damage to his kidneys.This is the most severe form of Bright's disease.Pauling was silent, trying to figure it out.Eva asked if anyone had recovered from this condition. "Some people are able to recover," replied one doctor.But now it is important to determine the nature of the symptoms and get to the root of the illness. Everything after that was like a nightmare.They stayed another day for more tests.After the end, the doctor warned Pauling to cancel the rest of the speech and go home immediately.They will help him find a suitable specialist in California. On the return train, Pauling remained calm on the surface, but had mixed feelings inside.Both his parents died young.Grandfather Linus Darling also died of kidney disease.Seems like he's going to go with them.Back in Pasadena, while he waited for expert advice, he dealt with the affliction with the only means at his disposal: he kept his head down, completed yet another application to the Rockefeller Foundation, and read all about kidney disease. article.All articles mention the fact that most experts agree that there is no effective treatment for Bright's disease. Pauling's mood became depressed, but he buried this emotion deep in his heart and continued to work.Other than getting tired easily and gaining 20 pounds, he didn't feel sick.But he followed the doctor's orders to work in bed.Then someone arranged for him to see the best nephrologist on the West Coast.The specialist's name was Thomas Addis, who was the director of the Kidney Clinic at Stanford University. Pauling needed hope, and Addis was the one who gave him hope.He was a tall, handsome, charismatic Scot who looked unbelievably 60 years old.He is affable, trustworthy, somewhat absent-minded, and has a wealth of knowledge about the classification and treatment of Bright's disease.Twenty years of work on Bright's disease convinced Addis that it was not a single disease but a complication of several diseases with different symptoms.In Pauling's view, his diagnostic method was very scientific: he quantitatively analyzed the urine sediment (Addis count) over a period of time, which allowed him to understand the cause of kidney disease.He also measures the urea clearance (addis urea rate) of the urine sample, which can give him an idea of ​​the severity of the condition.Addis is one of the few doctors in the world who believes that Bright's disease can be cured.He has a theory that the treatment of this disease should be based on the balance of tissue destruction and regeneration.The trick to treatment is to give the kidneys plenty of rest.Addis told Pauling that the main function of the kidneys is to concentrate urea and excrete it from the body.Urea is derived from the metabolism of protein.To cure the disease, Pauling's kidneys had to process less urea, which meant less protein intake. Pauling knew from reading the literature on nephrology that other nephrologists disagreed with Addis.They point out that protein is needed in the diet for maximum kidney regeneration.Other specialists, on the other hand, routinely forego treating patients with Bright's disease.Addis made at least one attempt to cure this disease. For many days, Addis tracked and analyzed Pauling's urine output, sediment quantity and urea clearance rate. Sometimes he took Pauling to his laboratory to observe the results of urine analysis with his own eyes.In his daily conversations with the star patient—sometimes they shared tea, which was part of Addis' daily ritual—the two found many similarities.Addis believes that scientific measurement is the basis for diagnosis, which coincides with Pauling.The two discuss the function of the kidneys, discuss the metabolism of hemoglobin, and discuss politics: Adis is the most fierce anti-fascist in the Gulf, a supporter of the civil rights movement and a believer in Soviet Russia, and he has adopted socialist lines to run himself. clinic. After spending two weeks at Addis' clinic, the two became good friends.One day, Addis walked into the ward and told Pauling it was time to go home.His tests showed that Pauling's condition could be managed with a low-protein and no-salt diet, which reduced urea production and reduced tissue edema.Eva will make sure Pauling sticks to the diet; Addis has given her some advice.He will continue to monitor the development of Pauling's condition at Stanford, and his urine samples will be analyzed every week.He told Pauling to lie in bed and eat a healthy diet; not to overwork so that the kidneys would have a chance to be repaired. This sounds very reasonable.After returning to Pasadena, Pauling was placed on a bed in the study, and began to restrict his diet according to Addis's instructions, mainly eating fruits, grains, and vegetables, and supplementing appropriate amounts of vitamins, minerals, and plenty of water.He kept correspondence to a minimum, delegated most administrative duties to Sturtevant, and buried himself in mysterious decimals, hoping to temporarily suspend his thoughts on science.Eva became his nurse and nutritionist, carefully preparing his food, accurately weighing each ingredient on a new balance, calculating his total protein and salt intake, and bringing all the data to his table. Write it down in your notebook.How to make a salt-free and meat-free diet tasteful has become a challenge for her.In addition to the daily bananas and animal glue, she sometimes catches a few snails from the garden, feeds them with cereal for a few days, and then steams them. This is nothing less than a gourmet meal for Pauling, who has a monotonous diet.Eva explained to Pauling that snails are very low in protein. Addis' diet started to work.Pauling forced himself to stay in bed, first all day, then half the day.Four months later, the puffiness was gone; six months later, Pauling found his energy and spirits returned to normal levels.He corresponded frequently with Addis, visited him occasionally, and became a disciple of Addis' therapy.He later nominated Addis to the National Academy of Sciences, secured his election, and helped him secure government funding to continue his research on kidney disease during the war.He followed a low-protein diet for 15 years and owes his life and health to Addis' medical ideas.And Addis told Pauling that it was Eva who saved him: few other patients have been able to do so, adhere to this diet so religiously. To Pauling's colleagues, his recovery was considered a miracle.At first, there was even serious discussion about where the chemistry department would go after Pauling was lost.Now less than a year old, Pauling is back healthy and looking better than ever.Hughes recalled: "We thought we would lose him, but for many years after that, I found that he was getting younger and younger every year after he recovered." In September 1941, Pauling felt so good that he decided to attend the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the University of Chicago, which culminated in the awarding of honorary doctorates to fifty outstanding individuals in fifty academic fields.Pauling was pleased to receive an honorary doctorate in chemistry.He returned to scientific projects, including his work on antibodies, and began compiling a textbook from the notes he used to teach freshman classes. However, at this time, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came, and this scientific research project, along with many other projects, was put on hold. bombs and rockets The United States officially entered the war on December 7, 1941, in effect confirming the predictions of Caltech teachers and students.Within days of Pearl Harbor, Millikan, 73, appointed a committee to keep the academy safe.The main concern was Japanese sabotage and bombing, and the committee was a little jittery in the post-Pearl Harbor frenzy.The first few weeks of the war were something of a comedy, with formations of schoolchildren patrolling important buildings with ax handles.It was suggested to Pauling that armed guards should be placed outside every laboratory in the Gates and Clelling buildings, but he convinced the university that a night watchman would suffice.Scholars turned their thinking from the structure of the universe to the making of homemade gas masks and ways to keep glass from flying around during an explosion.Pauling, like every scientist who accepts a military contract, was fingerprinted and given a security clearance. Even more important than these superficial changes was the fact that the war had brought vast sums of money to the Academy.In Washington, Caltech's Charlie Lawlesson became an ardent promoter of military rocketry, convincing the military that the college could become the nation's center for rocket research, despite having done little before the war.Three months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Pasadena received its first federal grant of two hundred thousand dollars for rocket research—equivalent to one-sixth of the college's total prewar annual budget.Lawrison set up a rocket propellant factory in the hills near Pasadena and worked around the clock under a faculty member in Pauling's department, chemical engineer Bruce Sage."Few people knew that high explosives on the hills would be enough to wipe Pasadena off the map," recalled one program participant. By 1944, funding for the rocket program alone was running at two dollars a month Millions of dollars, thousands of workers hired, thousands of subcontractors, and a whole new industry created in Southern California.As Lawrison's right-hand man put it, "a large part of Caltech became effectively a division of the Bureau of Ordnance." One of the big problems with rockets is that they are unreliable.Lawrison watched the Navy fire drills and saw rockets one after the other, either exploding prematurely or missing their target.He believed it was a problem with the propellant, and that the gunpowder produced in America burned erratically, much worse than what he had seen used in England.He believed that with better propellants and a more scientific design, rockets could be more accurate, more reliable, and a weapon of war. Pauling also became interested in propellants and explosives.After the United States declared war, he applied his talents to the study of gunpowder.He became a member of the Explosives Division of the National Defense Research Council—a subdivision of the Agency for Scientific Research and Development, as did the newly formed Medical Research Board—and chaired a special committee on internal ballistics for the rocket program.He traveled to Washington almost every month to formulate research plans and discuss research goals with those who manipulated the war machine.Government grants also began to flow to his laboratory, mainly for the analysis of explosives and the development of more stable propellants.鲍林很快成了一名专家，他广泛地阅读各种资料，并在1942年春夏之交参观了东部一些火药和炸药工厂。海军开始经常性地将得到的德国和日本燃料送到帕萨迪纳，让加州理工学院的科学家进行分析。在鲍林指导下创造出来的新的色谱法，可以对协约国的火箭成分进行快速准确的分析——哪怕只是从炸弹碎片上刮下来的一些碎屑。将泽希迈斯特的分离法扩展到对炸药的分析，使色谱法成为化学家的一项重要工具。鲍林说：“引进色谱分析，我们可以说是对现代化学进行了一场革命。” 1942年春天，已经康复的鲍林急切地想为战争作贡献，一头扎进了国防研究中。他发明了一种改进的火箭炸药稳定剂，这一化合物能够使炸药燃烧得更稳定，火箭飞行的弹道也更理想。有好事者昵称它为“莱纳斯”，这一名称在第二次世界大战期间流传甚广。鲍林开始研究用合成物质来替代军事观察仪器上急需的石英晶体，并合作研制了一种穿甲弹，后来还申请了专利。 只要有可能，爱娃仍坚持让鲍林在床上躺上半天，但是要让他减缓工作的节奏几乎是不可能的。他本来的想象力就如天马行空，现在更有许许多多问题需要他思考。而且，他选择的每一个课题，似乎都有源源不断的联邦经费。他就如同一个手执一张空白支票的男孩，闯进了玩具店。他在1942年6月写道：“这里的实验室已经失去了往日的悠闲。我们有数不清的战争研究项目，每个人都全力以赴。”他巡视兵工厂，对炸药的生产提出建议。他分析制造氧气的化学系统。他负责一个生产烟雾剂的生产项目。他还设计了一个测定溶剂中分子量的仪器，并在空余时间发明了一种他自认为不可破译的密码（他将这一发明送交陆军部，之后就杳无音讯了）。他每月一次都要登上“超级首领”列车去华盛顿，路上要用三天时间，在那里呆上一两天开会或讨论，接着就回家。他非常喜欢这一段旅程，因为他可以一边望着车窗外的群山和平原，一边安静地进行思考，觉得正在为战争贡献自己的力量。 随着滚滚而来的拨款，鲍林实验室的规模也日益膨胀。单是火药项目就集中了大约五十个青年化学家，占满了实验室和办公室的每一个空间。他们由科里领导，科里是不可或缺的。这位生性腼腆的人原来只习惯和一两个助手共事，战争使他成了一个高效的经理。他设计的一整套汇报和规划体系使加州理工学院成为其他战时实验室效仿的榜样。 1943年年初，鲍林的老朋友奥本海默来到加州理工学院，给鲍林带来了为战争作贡献的更好机会。自从奥本海默在十五年前试图说服爱娃到墨西哥“度假”之后，他们两人没有说过几句话；但是鲍林跟踪着这位物理学家在伯克利的学术生涯，并且通过秘密情报网得知他正在参与一项极端机密的武器项目。奥本海默仍然那么憔悴瘦削，仍然烟瘾十足，仍然自以为是。他向鲍林解释说，他正领导一个小组利用铀的同位素裂变来制造一种炸弹。他说他们正在和海森伯领导的德国人竞赛，因而至少从理论上来说，纳粹面前没有什么障碍。但是这里涉及的不光是理论。一个月前或更早的时候，费密和西拉特在芝加哥成功地控制了一次裂变连锁的反应。现在看来，肯定能够制造出一种核裂变炸弹，爆炸时，将原子核结合在一起的巨大能量就能够释放出来。 奥本海默解释说，政府正在把巨额资金投入到这一炸弹的研制中。这将是一个巨大的项目，将涉及上千名科学家。他们都集中在新墨西哥州洛斯阿拉莫斯镇一处山顶上改建的一所小学里，保安措施非常严密。大多数工作将由物理学家完成，但是也会涉及到相当多的化学工作。他问鲍林是否对领导这一项目的化学组感兴趣。他说，参加这个项目一个额外的好处是能够得到珍稀的放射性示踪剂氖，鲍林在化学生物学的研究中非常需要这一种物质。 鲍林很快就作出了答复。做一群物理学家的下属——特别是直接在奥本海默的领导下工作——令他反胃。将自己的妻子和孩子带到新墨西哥州荒漠极端保密的新兵训练营中去也丝毫提不起他的兴趣。他拒绝了这一邀请。他说：“并不是因为我觉得发展核武器有什么不对，而是我手头还有别的工作。” 鲍林有很多事情要操心。战争初期他就成为科学研究和发展局西部医药研究委员会的一名成员，成了帮助军方解决最紧迫的医疗需求的顾问。他获悉成千上万名士兵由于休克而死亡，原因仅仅是因为得不到血浆。而战时的血浆供应极端匾乏。医学研究委员会紧急设立了一个项目，旨在开发廉价、可靠的人造血浆替代品。鲍林由于在血红蛋白和抗体的研究上积累了丰富的经验，因而赢得了这一项目。他拉起了一支队伍，其中包括阿迪斯，由他负责测试肾脏对人造血浆的清除率，还包括免疫学专家坎贝尔。他们共同尝试了许多化学方法，试图制造出能够骗过肌体的人造血浆。他们一直没有任何进展，直到鲍林想出一种化学方法，改变了动物胶的性质，使它不仅能够模仿血浆的一般特性——其浓度和粘度——而且成本低廉，易于储藏。他将这一方法称为动物胶氧化法。在志愿人员身上进行的早期试验相当成功，鲍林为这一配方申请了专利，并无偿提供给政府使用。他通过各种媒体广泛宣传了这一发现，公开宣布了他的成功，并收集了全国各地电讯稿的剪报。由于这一配方中分子大小的差异极大，政府拒绝批准动物胶氧化法，这令鲍林十分失望。接着在1943年，整个血浆替代品的项目下马了，因为已有众多的志愿人员纷纷捐献出真正的血浆。 “在医药史上第一次……” 到了1943年，鲍林的化学和化学工程系完全变了一个样：托尔曼去了华盛顿，尼曼研究着化学战，布赫曼和科普弗利试图合成抗疟疾药，卢卡斯研究塑料，雷西专攻火箭项目。所有学生几乎都上了战场，代替他们的是进修炸药或者火箭课程的军事人员。鲍林在1943年给一位朋友的信中写道：“这里的事情确实发生了巨大的变化。我们试图将讨论会继续下去，但是很难找到合适的题目。”许多研究课题都被列入了保密的范围。 在洛克菲勒基金会，韦弗和他的同事不安地注意到他们提供给鲍林的经费开始流向战争研究项目。由于科里和休斯将他们的注意力转向炸药和推进剂的研究上，最近一大笔经费资助的蛋白质问题被搁到了一边，而且有机化学项目大多也停顿了下来。 只有鲍林对于免疫学的研究未受到影响。由于这一项目对战争有着较为直接的作用，鲍林得以在华盛顿的支持下继续他的基础研究。鲍林个人对于这一领域的兴趣也日益浓厚。他甚至在多年以后重新开始涉足实验室，让坎贝尔教他如何给兔子接种，如何设法产生抗体凝结的反应。由于加州理工学院尚没有动物试验设施，鲍林在自家车库附近建起了一个五十只兔子的免窝，派小莱纳斯和彼得喂养和打扫。每天清晨去学校之前，他会给兔子注射抗原，有时还会亲自放血，收集抗体。 “我十分高兴地向您汇报，我们的免疫化学工作进展十分顺利，”鲍林在1941年年末给韦弗写信说。他的下一个目标是证明每个抗体分子有两个键合点，正如他在1940年关于抗体形成过程的论文中提出的那样，为此他设计了一种聪明的办法。兰德施泰纳将一个经过选择的有机分子和一个蛋白质结合在一起，完善了制造合成抗体的技巧；这样就可以根据已知的结构来培养抗体并进行研究。鲍林叫自己的助手制作了一系列这样的合成抗体，每一个蛋白质分别和一个、两个或三个同样的有机分子相结合。将这些有机分子培养出来的抗体进行各种反应，并对形成的合成物中的抗原和抗体的比例进行分析，他就能够估算出每个抗体分子到底与多少个抗原结合到了一起。研究结果有力地表明，正如他预言的那样，抗体是二价的，同时和两个抗原联结。他还发现，似乎抗体分子的两头能够与不同的抗原相结合，这又支持了抗体形成的模板理论。 但是，最令人激动的消息是，坎贝尔在1941年末成功地制造出了人造抗体。根据鲍林1940年论文中提出的理论，血液中任何一种球蛋白在变性之后都会形成一种特定的抗体，这样就能在某一抗原周围重新成形。鲍林在11月给韦弗的信中激动地写道，这正是坎贝尔对牛肉球蛋白进行试验得出的结论。他说，这标志着世界上首次人工合成了抗体。鲍林在信的结尾轻描淡写地说道，“我觉得在试管内合成抗体可以被认为具有相当的重要性。”实际上他认为这项发明相当重要，完全可以申请专利，不过他并没有将这一点告诉韦弗。 不过，坎贝尔的试验并没有像鲍林说的那么确定。坎贝尔制造出的东西只是有些像抗体——至少在他的手里，这种蛋白质确实能够专一地和一种目标抗原相结合——但是从牛肉球蛋白中得到的这一产品的产量很低，而且不稳定。在最理想的情况下，鲍林所称的“制造出来的抗体”中只有八分之一能够与抗原结合。而且抗体和抗原之间的结合力也比自然抗体要弱，沉淀物中抗体和抗原的比例也要低得多。 然而，这一切都可以用合成技巧的不完善来解释。证据也许不充分，但却是实实在在的，而且大致符合鲍林有关抗体形成和蛋白质构造的理论，符合他关于氢键连成的长链构成了各种形状的蛋白质的思想。这确证了他对世界的认识，当然也是正确的。 他认为这一实验是正确的。人造蛋白质的成功合成引发了各种有趣的可能性。在战争时期，人们迫切地需要各种药品，而人造抗体将称为世界上最有效的药品。鲍林为整个工艺申请了专利，这表明他深知自己这一发现的商业价值。他进而采取了一个不同寻常的举动。1942年3月，他在加州理工学院发表了一份新闻稿，宣布他的实验室成功地制造出了人工抗体。他在新闻稿中写道，尽管还不知道它的发现是否在医药上有用，这一研究为治疗疾病“开辟了新的可能性”。 对于如此重要的一项发明，未经科学杂志发表而首先向新闻媒体宣布，这闻所未闻，但给鲍林带来了立竿见影的效果。各界的反应迅捷而热烈。电讯社报道了这一发明，并广为传播。《科学》杂志在新闻栏目中进行了报道，对研究界人士说，“在医药史上第一次在烧瓶中人工合成了对抗疾病的物质，抗体。”《美国医药学会学报》的编辑用赞许的口气介绍了鲍林的发明，并期望有朝一日人造免疫血浆库能够出售鲍林的产品。医药公司的代表纷纷邀请鲍林签订合同，为他提供经费和技术上的帮助。 但是在完善实验技巧，最终将其商业化之前，鲍林希望得到更多的没有附加条件的赞助，为此他充分利用了新闻稿发布之后的知名度。有两家机构表示出兴趣，一个是科学研究和发展局的医学研究委员会，另一个是洛克菲勒基金会。鲍林在两家机构之间忸怩作态，一边通知委员会他的最新发现，同时又以开发出一种有价值的对付疾病的“相当大的可能性”来引诱韦弗。韦弗在激动之余中了鲍林的计。在很短的时间内，洛克菲勒基金会将为鲍林的免疫学研究提供三万一千美元的经费，其中包括用来完善人造抗体生产工艺的两万美元。 然而，并不是每个人都像鲍林那样信心十足。鲍林在4月份写道：“没有多少人写信来索取我们在试管中生产抗体的实验资料。也许他们满腹狐疑。”这话说对了。免疫界专家对鲍林这一成果一直保持缄默。8月份，鲍林在《实验医学杂志》上首次完整地发表了人造抗体的论文。论文表明，鲍林距离自己声称的研究成果还有相当大的距离。对于实验的描述相当粗略，根本无法精确地重复，而且他的对照实验也相当勉强。兰德施泰纳和其他一些人在试图重复这一实验时没有获得成功。 尽管人们的怀疑日益加深，鲍林仍然坚信自己是正确的。他发现了一些新的证据：他和坎贝尔人工合成了肺炎球菌抗原的抗体，发现其对感染的老鼠至少具有某种可以测量的保护作用。然而，其他的一些迹象则有些不妙。坎贝尔似乎是能够人工合成抗体的唯一的一个人。他指导的学生和博士后则运气不佳。在进行了三个月的努力之后，一位研究人员写信给鲍林说：“我祝愿您在人工制造抗体的工作中一帆风顺，但是我必须承认自己有些悲观……坦率地说，对于那些时而有效、时而无效的实验步骤，我并没有什么好感，而且我找不到任何失败的缘由。” 1943年初，洛克菲勒基金也开始紧张起来。弗兰克·布莱尔·汉森分担了韦弗自然科学部的一些职责，他对于鲍林不像韦弗那么迷信。随着免疫学资金延续期限的邻近，汉森征询了全国抗体专家对于鲍林理论的看法。专家们的反应并不积极。一位专家直截了当地说帕萨迪纳从来就没有制造出过人造抗体；另一位专家则担心鲍林“对自己的工作并不十分严谨”。兰德施泰纳对于鲍林抗体形成的一般理论仍持赞成态度，但是他告诉汉森，如果他下注的话，“他觉得鲍林生产出抗体的可能性小于百分之五十。”著名的微生物学家勒内·迪博总结说：“鲍林教授的观点之所以受到广泛重视，是因为他在化学领域的崇高威望，然而我们中许多人觉得其结论的基础非常不充分。” 汉森开始公开表示怀疑，问鲍林既然在一年的努力之后仍没有得到结论性的成果，是不是应该削减他的经费。鲍林无言以对。实验结果似乎预示着成功，然而过多的失败给整个研究蒙上了一层阴云。在向全世界宣布了他已经成功地人工合成抗体之后，现在他不得不承认这些抗体不能全面地保护动物，对此他深感“失望”。他进而降低了人造抗体在他整体研究计划中的重要性。接着洛克菲勒基金会将给他的专项研究经费削减了一大半。与此同时，鲍林悄悄地收回了对抗体生产的专利申请。此后他再也没有就此课题发表过一篇论文。 然而他也不愿意撤回自己的结论。他不明白为什么坎贝尔的实验看似成功，而带来的只是混乱。他觉得自己的理论是正确的。他看到的坎贝尔制造的少量人工抗体也肯定是正确的。如果这一切是错误的话，将会有人站出来证明这一点。 但是，在战争期间及战后的许多年中，没有人这样做。尽管当时免疫学研究领域的顶尖科学家私下里对鲍林的研究工作持批判态度，并且对他的执迷不悟大为不满，但是他们都不愿公开发表他们的观点。只有一个初出茅庐的青年免疫学家埃尔文·卡巴特敢于发表文章，对鲍林的研究结果表示质疑。他在一篇评论文章中说，鲍林和坎贝尔观察到的是抗原和球蛋白的非特定的结合；由于坎贝尔在实验中使用了大量的球蛋白，这些蛋白质互相纠结在一起，同时将一些抗原也拖了下来。一些资深的免疫学专家在非公开场合对卡巴特的观点表示赞同。那么为什么只有他公开地抨击鲍林的观点呢？后来卡巴特说道，“慑于鲍林的威势，大多数不想对他表示异议。” 科学界的沉默使鲍林的声誉不至于因人造抗体的失败而受到过多的影响。只有对这一领域最为熟悉的免疫学家和洛克菲勒基金会的官员才明白，鲍林在这一研究上有夸大其辞的嫌疑。 就鲍林而言，他从不认为他和坎贝尔进行的工作是失败的。五十年后，鲍林仍然坚持他的立场：“我们确实成功地制造出了抗体——尽管非常弱，但是仍具有特异性。” 为什么那些神奇的东西只在坎贝尔的烧瓶中出现呢？在放弃研制人造抗体多年之后，坎贝尔对自己的密友，理工学院生物系教授雷·欧文提出了一种解释。他说，一个过于积极的实验室助手为了得到老板们预期的结果，而对实验做了手脚。整个事件是由于“一些技术人员为了讨教授的欢心”而发生的。 在放弃了人造抗体的研究之后，鲍林得以重新将精力投入到更富有成果的其他免疫学研究领域。从1943年开始，他回到了对更为基本的问题的研究上，并与普莱斯曼和坎贝尔一起得出了一些实在的研究成果。在此之后的几年中，三人小组发表了二十多篇论文，对抗体二价性以及特定分子形状在抗体和抗原结合中的重要作用提出了有力的证据。他们比兰德施泰纳更为精确地设计了合成抗原，并运用新的定量技巧来测定抗原和抗体的反应。事实上，到了战争结束时，鲍林实验室就证明了抗体和抗原形状的互补性是其互相结合的根本原因。他们的成果支持并进一步发展了埃尔利希锁和钥匙的思想，确切地表明抗体和抗原就像分子拼图游戏一样彼此吻合着。 然而是什么力量使它们结合在一起的呢？在对打破抗体和抗原之间化学键所需的能量进行研究后，鲍林深信其中并未涉及强化学键——共价键或离子键。他的脑海中出现了一幅新的图像。鲍林小组比较了抗体和具有特定变异的抗原之间的反应，发现抗原上哪怕是一个原子的变化也会对键合的力量产生显著的影响。换句话说，这种吻合一定是极为精确的。 分子之间原子和原子的紧密接触产生了另一种附着力，也就是原子间的范德瓦尔斯引力。范德瓦尔斯引力得名于一位荷兰科学家，他研究了气体中这种力的作用，并证明它非常弱——相当于共价键的十分之一到百分之——而且没有针对性，几乎任何一对彼此接触的原子都会产生这种作用。弗里茨·伦敦在1930年用量子力学理论解释了这种现象，提出这是由于两个靠近的原子干扰了彼此的电子云造成的。鲍林在进行晶体衍射的研究时早已熟知这一种现象：共价键将两个碘原子紧密地结成一个分子，而范德瓦尔斯力则将这些分子联结成晶体。对抗体而言，相当重要的一点是，范德瓦尔斯力随距离的增加而呈几何级数递减，这样它只有在相当近的距离内才能产生作用。鲍林意识到，如果只有几个原子在一起，那么范德瓦尔斯力没有多少作用，但是如果像蛋白质这样的巨型分子的表面互相接触，那么总的范德瓦尔斯力就足以将两个分子结合在一起。假定范德瓦尔斯力是抗原一抗体作用的主要因素，也意味着如果使分子互相离开哪怕是一丁点儿——鲍林实验室发现，如果在一个抗原的表面制造一个凸起，使抗体和抗原之间的距离达到一个原子直径的几分之——就能显著地削弱它们之间结合的力量。如果这种不吻合的情况更为显著的话，抗原和抗体就会彼此脱离。 鲍林发现，由于存在这种微弱而又不确定的力，再考虑到某些氢键的作用以及极性相反的分子间相互吸引的作用，抗体和抗原的结合一定会具有非常特殊的形式。而且发生这种作用的根本原因是分子结构。精确、互补的形状是至关重要的因素。鲍林相信，至少在免疫学中，分子结构决定了生物特异性。 这项研究成果具有非凡的价值和重要性，使鲍林在遭受人造抗体的失败之后仍能在免疫学研究领域保持领先的地位。他关于形成抗体的直接模板理论继续受到人们广泛的承认。这一理论非常简明易懂，尽管存在一些缺陷，仍将在以后的十五年中成为抗体成形理论中最具影响力的理论。甚至那些在私下里批评鲍林的免疫学家也不得不承认；他给这一领域带来了新的活力，作出了一些重大的发现，引发了许多有益的讨论。直到50年代中期，鲍林的直接模板理论才被一种基于一些令人惊奇的遗传现象的抗体成形理论所替代。直到那时他才最终被证明其抗体成形理论是错误的。不过他关于抗体和抗原如何发生作用的理论仍是正确的。 爱娃·海伦也在为战争操劳着。她在加州理工学院生物实验室里做了几个月的研究助理，帮助开发人工制造橡胶的方法。她受训担任了洛杉矶县的助理消防员和空袭警报哨，并在屋前开挖了一片战时菜园。她还从事政治活动：她认为1942年提出的拘留美籍日本人是对民权的粗暴践踏，并志愿为当地的美国公民自由协会服务以反对这项法令。 与此同时，她对自己贤妻良母的角色仍烙尽职守。她尽力使山间的居所能够远离战争忧患，尽管这并不容易。每天，孩子们都会听见山下加州理工学院一所炸药研究所传来的爆炸声。1942年一天深夜，全家人都被空袭警报惊醒。鲍林默数着高射炮的爆破声，爱娃则安慰着孩子们。 孩子们需要安慰。战争爆发时小莱纳斯16岁，照他后来的说法，是一个“在许多方面神经质的少年”。与父亲的关系使他伤透了脑筋。父亲高高在上，望子成龙，他永远也无法让父亲满意，同父亲在一起总是让他不舒服。鲍林对于父子关系的认识，是从学校里把一年级的化学题目带回家，让高中的小莱纳斯解答——当回答不出的时候，小莱纳斯总感到非常丢脸。尽管他的学习成绩还过得去，他在学校里总感到难以安心。他前后换了三所学校，最后才在弗林特里奇，一所距帕萨迪纳几英里之外的贵族寄宿学校安顿下来。暑假回家的时候，他总觉得自己像是一个陌生人，比二弟要大6岁，在年龄上更接近父亲叫来看孩子的研究生。他对自己的前程也感到困惑：尽管鲍林没有强求，年轻的小莱纳斯还是感到父亲希望自己能够从事科学事业，然而他无意同自己的父亲竞争。战争开始时，他决定学医，这一领域“和科学密切相关，可以让父母满意”。18岁刚从弗林特里奇毕业时，他加入了空军，离开了家。 别的孩子也让人操心。彼得也在很早的时候就被送到了寄宿学校，在战争期间，他开始表现出古怪的行为。一个学期他带回家的可以是弗林特里奇学校里最好的成绩，而下一个学期就会下降为B和C。尽管思路敏捷，口齿伶俐，他的学校评语千篇一律地为：“他应当而且完全能够得到全A……但是他的成绩与他的能力相去甚远。”鲍林和爱娃对他的成绩深感忧虑，最后在1945年让他从弗林特里奇转学到一所公立初级学校——他轻而易举地在核心课程中拿到了全A。 琳达长成了一个漂亮的孩子，是父亲的掌上明珠。小儿子克莱林很早就懂事了。但是山间的住处与世隔绝，琳达和克莱林不能和别的孩子玩耍。还有另一种孤独：父母经常外出。鲍林要么在路上，要么在学校里，要么就是关在八角形的书房里，那里是孩子们绝对禁止打扰的。尽管爱娃竭力想成为一个尽职的母亲，但她也同样喜欢旅行，利用一切机会陪伴自己的丈夫外出，一去就是几天，甚至几个星期。贝克讲座让他们在康奈尔大学一呆就是四个月，期间他们把婴儿克莱林和别的孩子托付给鲍林的秘书阿莱塔·汤森德照看。阿莱塔像母亲一样照顾着孩子们，和三个最小的孩子非常密切，特别是琳达。 鲍林履行着他认为是一个父亲应尽的职责：努力工作，为家庭提供像样的住所和几件贵重物品，在必要的时候管教孩子们。尽管他所有的孩子都煞费苦心地博取他的欢心，他们毕竟还都是孩子。他缺乏耐心，如果他们太调皮或者缺乏教养的话，他就会大发雷霆。 科学是他的挚爱，孩子们不能与科学相提并论。