Linus Pauling
By Craig Johnson

"We must have research for peace... It would embrace the outstanding problems of morality. The time has come for man's intellect, his scientific method, to win over the immoral brutality and irrationality of war and militarism... Now we are forced to eliminate from the world forever this vestige of prehistoric barbarism, this curse to the human race."

Many people perceive scientists as cold, calculating individuals who care little about how their research affects humanity. The scientist, especially the chemist, is often viewed as nothing but a white coat whose field often harms the Earth more than it helps. In some cases, such stereotypes might be justified, but as for Dr. Linus Pauling, nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Dr. Pauling was an absolutely brilliant scientist. He is the only person to ever win two undivided Nobel Prizes, for chemistry in 1954 and peace in 1962. The British magazine, New Scientist ranked Dr. Pauling as one of the twenty greatest scientists to ever live, an honor shared with such impressive figures as Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Isaac Newton.

Throughout his life, Pauling had an insatiable curiosity to unlock scientific secrets, but with the understanding that any answers found must be used for the advancement of peace. His peace activism began after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Concerned with the disastrous effects of nuclear weapons, Pauling joined with Albert Einstein and five others to form the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. It became their mission to inform the public about the real and dangerous consequences that nuclear weapons and nuclear testing held for civilization.

Pauling went on hundreds of lecture tours, speaking out against war and nuclear weapons. He toured during a time of heightened Cold War suspicions and was subsequently marked a Communist supporter. As a result, he was refused a passport and was unable to attend many international scientific conventions. Furthermore, because of his peace campaigns, he was twice forced to stand before congressional committees and declare that he was not a Communist. Yet despite governmental oppression, Pauling remained undaunted and continued his crusade of public education.

In 1957, Pauling wrote the Scientists' Bomb-Test Appeal calling for a nuclear test ban treaty and began distributing it throughout the scientific community. He soon gathered over eleven thousand signatures from over forty-nine countries. Pauling then presented the appeal to Dag Hammarskjöld, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, announcing that it represented the general consensus of the world's scientists and their plea for a ban on all future nuclear testing.

Pauling continued his crusade by writing a draft resolution for a test ban treaty. He sent letters and copies of his resolution to both President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev. To the world's relief, the two superpowers agreed upon a limited test ban treaty, one that was strikingly similar to Pauling's. The Partial Test-Ban Treaty went into effect on October 10th, 1963, the very day it was announced that Pauling was to receive his second Nobel Prize.

Linus Pauling remained politically active his entire life. He felt that as a scientist and as a citizen, it was his responsibility to speak out in support of pacifism and nuclear disarmament. During the 1991 Gulf War, Pauling once again made his voice heard. He spent large sums of his own money buying advertisements in the New York Times and the Washington Post condemning the United States' eagerness to rush into war. Dr. Pauling remarked, "I didn't expect it to be effective, but I felt that it was my duty to what I could." Such are words we should all remember.