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Videos
The Linus Pauling Symposium - February 28, 1995
![The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology [1 of 2]](symposium-crick01.jpg "The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology [1 of 2]") The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology [1 of 2]
Author: Francis Crick
Length: 2:28
 Watch using MPG Size: 11 MB
Transcript:
The first question I ask myself is not when did I first meet Linus, but when did I first hear about him? In 1946 I was sitting
in an office in London, in the British Admiralty, trying to decide what to do and wondering whether I should go into what
we now call Molecular Biology. I had not had much organic chemistry in school; I remembered there were hydrocarbons and various
things like that, but I did not know what an amino acid was. My knowledge was at a very elementary level. Across my desk came
an article, or rather I think the account of an article, in Chemical and Engineering News, which said that hydrogen bonds were very important in biology. Well, I did not know two things: I did not know what a hydrogen
bond was, and I had never heard of the author who had a rather peculiar name; it was Linus Pauling. That was the first occasion
I came across his name. Of course, I asked around, and I heard that a lot of other people, not just ignorant physicists like
myself, knew a lot about him.
Not long after that, I bought a textbook, Linus Pauling's General Chemistry, and this was an eye-opener to me, because while I had done some chemistry at high school, I had not done any at university.
High school chemistry in those days was taught really as a subject where you had to memorize a lot of odd things that happened.
I exaggerate a little, but do remember it was in high school; no doubt, if I had gone on further it would have fallen into
place more. But when I read Linus' book, I was very impressed by the systematic way everything was organized. I do not think
I ever did learn much of the inorganic chemistry, by the way, but I learned all about the strong bonds, and the weak bonds,
including the hydrogen bond, of course. And that really is almost all, I would say, the organic chemistry I know today. By
now I have forgotten most of it as well, but what I knew then, I think I got from that book.
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