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Audio
Lifestory: Linus Pauling - 1997
[4 of 7]
Author: Max Perutz
Length: 1:21
 Listen using Windows Media Size: 69.2 KB
Transcript:
When I saw the alpha helix and saw what a beautiful elegant structure it was, I was thunderstruck and was furious with myself
for not having built this, but on the other hand I wondered, was it really right? So I started home for lunch and was so preoccupied,
the turmoil in my mind that didn't respond to anything. Then I had an idea, so I started back to the lab. I realized that
I had a horse hair in a drawer. I set it up for the x-ray camera and gave it a 2 hour exposure, then took the film to the
dark room with my heart in my mouth, wondering what it showed, and when I developed it, there was the 1.5 angstrom reflection
which I had predicted and which excluded all structures other than the alpha-helix. So on Monday morning I stormed into my
professor's office, into Bragg's office and showed him this, and Bragg said, "Well, whatever made you think of that?" And
I said, "Well, because I was so furious with myself for having missed it." To which Bragg replied coldly, "I wish I had made
you angry earlier."
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