STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

Website: Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond : Dittrick Museum receives contraception collection

• Date:   Sun, 12 Dec 2004 15:17:46 -0800
• To:   sthc-l@library.ucla.edu
• From:   Russell A. Johnson   < rjohnson AT library.ucla.edu >
• Subject:   Website: Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond
• Message-ID:   118083113ebf.113ebf118083@library.ucla.edu

Forwarded to STHC-L (The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum) from H-SCI-MED-TECH.

Russell Johnson
STHC-L administrator
rjohnson@library.ucla.edu


----- Original Message -----
From: "Phillip Thurtle, H-SCI-MED-TECH" [smtedit@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU]
Date: Saturday, December 11, 2004 7:03 am
Subject: New WWW site, Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond
From: "Petersen, Chris" [chris.petersen@oregonstate.edu]


News Release News Release News Release

"Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond: A Documentary
History"

New Website Launched Today by Oregon State University Libraries
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/index.html

The story of one of the most important discoveries in modern science -
and the basis for the most-cited scientific publication of the twentieth
century - is given fresh life in a vast new website being launched today
by the Oregon State University Libraries. "Linus Pauling and the Nature
of the Chemical Bond: A Documentary History", features a trove of over
800 documents, and is available at
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/index.html

December 10, 2004 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Linus Pauling's
receipt of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The prize was awarded to
Pauling (1901-1994) for "research into the nature of the chemical bond
and its application to the elucidation of complex substances."

The impact of the research that led to these accolades is difficult to
overstate. By applying the new quantum physics to the study of
structural chemistry, Pauling revolutionized the science world's
understanding of how atoms join together to form molecules. Pauling's
work is, today, the foundation of contemporary structural chemistry.
Indeed, Pauling's 1939 book The Nature of the Chemical Bond has gone
down in history as the most frequently-cited scientific publication of
the twentieth century.
More than 800 digitized letters, manuscripts, photographs, audio-clips
and video excerpts - most of them never before available outside of
archives - form the heart of Chemical Bond website. They include a
number of important and unique items, such as:
* The complete manuscript of Pauling's germinal first
paper on the nature of the chemical bond, written in April 1931.
* Hundreds of additional pages of manuscripts and notes
written by Pauling as he expanded and fine-tuned his theories of
structural chemistry throughout the 1930s.
* Pauling's extensive correspondence with many of the
major chemists of the era including G.N. Lewis, A.A. Noyes and Irving
Langmuir.
The original documents are tied together with a narrative describing the
details of Pauling's discoveries, and are amplified by a "Day-by-Day"
calendar, which notes all of Pauling's personal and professional
activities throughout the 1930s as well as his Nobel year of 1954.

_________________
Chris Petersen
Faculty Research Assistant
The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Phone: 541-737-2810
Fax: 541-737-8674

Linus Pauling and the Nature of the Chemical Bond
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/index.html