Almost nine hours of transcribed video featuring presentations by a number of famed scientists and historians is the latest addition to the Special Events website presented by the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections. Of particular note is a lecture by 1962 Nobel laureate Dr. Francis Crick titled "The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology." Video of a talk by an additional Nobel Prize winner, Dr. William N. Lipscomb (Chemistry, 1976) is a further highlight of this release.

All of the new video is available at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/1995paulingconference/index.html

The presentations, which date to February and March 1995, were initially delivered and recorded on the Oregon State University campus as part of a major conference celebrating the life and work of Dr. Linus Pauling (1901-1994). Titled "A Discourse on the Art of Biography," the aim of the symposium was to convene three groups of speakers: scholars and journalists who had been writing about Linus Pauling as a biographical subject; friends and colleagues who knew Pauling personally; historians and archivists who had studied scientists as the subject of contemporary scientific biography.

Participants included Pauling’s youngest son Crellin, as well as a collection of Pauling’s former graduate students - including renowned molecular biologist Dr. Matthew Meselson and OSU Professors Emeritus Dr. Ken Hedberg and Dr. David Shoemaker - each of whom shared a number of often-humorous stories mined from their long associations with the famed scientist.

Three Pauling biographers likewise discussed their experiences writing on and interacting with their subject in a fascinating and information-packed session titled "The Biographer’s Picture of Linus Pauling." A number of major historians, including Sarton Medal winners Frederic Lawrence Holmes and John L. Heilbron, broadened the discussion to the larger issues facing all writers of biography in general, and writers of science biography in particular.

Annotated transcripts of each presentation are included along with the full video of the nineteen talks that comprised this historic gathering.

Dr. Roderick MacKinnon, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will speak in Portland on Monday, May 5th. The lecture, entitled “Ion Channel Chemistry: The Electrical System of Life,” will be held at the Portland Hilton & Executive Tower at 8:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Seats may be reserved ahead of time.

Dr. MacKinnon is visiting Oregon to receive the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, presented by the Oregon State University Libraries. This award is granted once every two years to an outstanding individual in an area of study that Linus Pauling researched. Past recipients of the award include Daisaku Ikeda, founder of Soka Gakkai International; Nobel laureate physicist Sir Joseph Rotblat; Harvard University biologist Matthew Meselson; and esteemed chemist John D. Roberts.

A biophysicist and self-taught X-ray crystallographer, Dr. MacKinnon of Rockefeller University won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in ion channel imaging. His research focuses on the physical and chemical processes that produce electricity in cells, and the passage of inorganic ions (such as potassium and chloride) across cell membranes. In 1998, MacKinnon became the first scientist ever to capture a three-dimensional image of a potassium ion channel, thus solving the mystery of its structure. His achievements have advanced the fields of both biology and medicine.

Dr. MacKinnon received his B.A. in biochemistry from Brandeis University and his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed medical residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston before returning to Brandeis for postdoctoral studies. He joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1989 and in 1996 moved to Rockefeller University as a professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics.

In addition to the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Dr. MacKinnon is the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the 2003 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the 2001 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, the 2000 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research and the 1999 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

For more information, see our Special Events section at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/2008legacyaward/index.html

The Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections is pleased to announce the launch of its latest online venture, the PaulingBlog, available at http://paulingblog.wordpress.com.

The primary aim of the PaulingBlog is to present the stories of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling's fascinating lives in a format that is accessible to a wide range of audiences. Drawing upon the seven major web portals developed by the OSU Special Collections since 2001, the PaulingBlog will highlight stories of interest that might otherwise go unnoticed by many users. The PaulingBlog will also be used to share news from within the OSU Libraries Special Collections -- be it upcoming events, new projects soon to be released or extra insight into projects already completed.

The PaulingBlog features full RSS compatibility and welcomes user comments.

In tandem with the development of the PaulingBlog, a new Flickr photo-sharing site has also been created to provide a visual glimpse of the OSU Libraries Special Collections and its holdings. A direct link to these images is as follows: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24628174@N04.

A revised and dramatically expanded version of the website "Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond: A Documentary History" is being released by the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections in celebration of the 107th anniversary of Linus Pauling's birth.

Originally launched in December 2004, "Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond" examines the groundbreaking structural chemistry research conducted by Pauling from 1926-1939. By applying the new physics discipline of quantum mechanics to the study of structural chemistry, Pauling revolutionized the science world’s understanding of how atoms join together to form molecules. In 1954 the Nobel Foundation recognized the importance of these breakthroughs by awarding Pauling the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Today, Pauling’s work remains the foundation of contemporary structural chemistry, and his 1939 book The Nature of the Chemical Bond stands among the most frequently-cited scientific publications of the twentieth century.

The heart of "Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond" is a forty-nine chapter narrative, written by Pauling biographer Tom Hager, which details Pauling’s many vital contributions to the study of atoms and molecules. Amplifying the narrative are over 2,500 pages of digitized letters and manuscripts, nearly 100 photographs and drawings, and more than four hours of audio and video materials. In addition, the entirety of Pauling’s personal and professional activities for the years 1930-1939, and for his Nobel chemistry year of 1954, are detailed in calendar form through the unique and growing "Linus Pauling Day-By-Day" project.

New additions to and highlights of the expanded "Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond" website include:

Fully-transcribed video of three complete lectures titled "Valence and Molecular Structure," delivered by Pauling for the National Science Foundation in 1957; annotated, pre-publication proof sheets of the 1927 paper in which Nobel laureate physicist Werner Heisenberg first proposed his famous "uncertainty principle"; and twelve stunning pastel drawings of chemical structures created by the renowned artist and illustrator Roger Hayward.

Also included are four humorous audio clips of a stage production titled "The Road to Stockholm: The Appalling Life of Dr. Linus Pauling," presented by Pauling’s scientific colleagues at the California Institute of Technology just prior to his receipt of the Nobel chemistry prize; over nine-hundred pages of lecture notes used by Pauling to instruct his students and his peers on emerging topics in quantum mechanics and structural chemistry; and correspondence with many of the great scientists of the early twentieth century, including Sir William Lawrence Bragg, A.A. Noyes, John C. Slater and Arnold Sommerfeld.

The website is available at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/index.html

Research grants are being made available to scholars interested in conducting work in the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers at OSU Libraries Special Collections. Stipends of $2,500 per month renewable for up to three months (for a total maximum grant award of $7,500) will be made available to researchers in the history of science whose proposals detail a compelling potential use of the materials held in the vast Pauling archive. Grant monies can be used for any purpose.

Researchers will be expected to conduct their scholarly activities while in residence at the OSU Libraries Special Collections. Historians, librarians, doctoral or post-doctoral students and independent scholars are welcome to apply. The deadline for applying for Resident Scholar Program support is April 10, 2008.

Detailed information outlining the qualifications necessary for application, the selection process and the conditions under which awards will be made is available at the following PDF: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/residentscholar.pdf

The Resident Scholar Program is generously supported by the Peter and Judith Freeman Fund.

More than nine hours of fully-transcribed video from a recent major conference on Linus Pauling are now available via the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections website.

In late October 2007, OSU served as host to a two-day public conference titled "The Scientist as Educator and Public Citizen: Linus Pauling and His Era." Featuring presentations by fifteen major scholars from across the United States and Europe -- including 1986 Nobel chemistry laureate Dr. Dudley Herschbach -- the conference focused upon Linus Pauling's revolutionary impact on two decidedly different fields: textbook writing and public advocacy for science and peace.

The filmed proceedings of this conference have since been completely transcribed, and freely-accessible video of each presentation is now available at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/2007paulingconference/index.html