Lecture Series Speakers February 7, 2001
John Polanyi
Nobel Laureate Department of Chemistry University of Toronto John Polanyi holds the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee for contributions to "the development of a new field of research chemistry--reaction dynamics." Polanyi was cited for "the method of infrared chemiluminescence, in which the extremely weak infrared emission from a newly-formed molecule is measured and analyzed," and for its application. Polanyi has written exclusively on science policy, the control of armaments, and peacekeeping. He was educated at Manchester University, England, was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, U.S.A., and the National Research Council, Canada. He is presently a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. His lecture is entitled, "Science and Conscience," and will be presented at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University at 7:30 p.m. This event is organized by the Convocations and Lectures Committee of Oregon State University.
February 28, 2001
Ahmed Zewail
Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling Professor of Physics California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Speaker Biography Title: Timing in the Invisible Abstract: In the history of human civilization, the measurement of time and recording of the order and duration of events in the natural world are among the earliest activities that might be classified as science. Until the 1800's, the ability to record the timing of individual steps in any process was essentially limited to time scales amenable to direct sensory perception. With ultrashort pulses of laser light, it has become possible to observe physical, chemical and biological changes with a resolution of femtoseconds, 15 orders of magnitude faster than the human heart beat and reaching the scale of atomic motion, both spatially and temporally. This freezing of time has led to discoveries that have opened up entirely new vistas in the microscopic world. In this lecture, we will explore mankind's race against time and the culmination in femtoscience.
Jack D. Dunitz
Professor of Chemical Crystallography Organic Chemistry Laboratory Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland Speaker Biography Title: Space Filling In Molecular Solids Abstract: Although a fundamental theory of intermolecular forces rests on a quantum mechanical basis, many aspects can be understood in terms of quite simple ideas. Harking back to Lucretius and Kepler, modern views on the structure of solids still rest on the notion that molecules tend to pack together so as to avoid empty space. Even if they have quite irregular shapes, molecules manage to fill space in regular repeating patterns with about the same efficiency as a close packed collection of spheres. However, for the same molecule, there is often more than one way of filling space efficiently. Hence, the frequent occurrence of polymorphic forms (the same compound occurring in different crystal forms with different properties) and the difficulties of crystal structure prediction.
Robert J. Paradowski
Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY Speaker Biography Title: An American in Munich: Truth and Controversy in the Life and Work of Linus Pauling during the Golden Years of Physics (1926-1927) Abstract: The public controversies that Pauling participated in during his later career, such as over the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere and over megadoses of vitamin C, are well known and have been studied. Less well known and studied have been the private controversies in his early career over such issues as politics, religion, marriage, and sexuality, and the shape and direction of his own life. These disputes involve both moral and biographical truths. There were also controversial elements in how this quintessential American chemist related to European physics, especially at a time when it was changing from classical to quantum physics. I shall also connect the issues discussed in this paper to those raised in the paper on the "Biographical Quest" that I presented at the 1995 Pauling Symposium on the "Art of Biography."
Thomas Hager
Assistant Professor and Director of the Office of Communications University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Speaker Biography Abstract: While Linus Pauling's scientific research continues to be a subject of substantial historical analysis, less attention has been paid recently to the political work that consumed much of his time, during the twenty years from 1945-1965. Pauling's political efforts were expressed in a number of ways, from speech making and petitioning to mounting court cases, writing articles and a book, publicly debating opponents and appearing before investigatory committees. He was punished for his outspoken behavior. The U.S. government investigated his activities, revoked his passport, cut off research grants, attacked him in print and repeatedly summoned him to explain his views. Pauling, typically, stuck to his guns. In the end, he was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize–only to have even that honor impugned by his political enemies. But Pauling was neither a victim nor a martyr. The ways in which he conducted himself during this difficult time showed integrity, passion, stubbornness and idealism. Yet his political work also demonstrated that he could be thin-skinned, self-centered, and intolerant of conflicting views. In the end, was it worth it? To answer the question, I will examine Pauling's political work, assess the results, and tally up the price he paid personally and professionally for taking this unusually public and controversial path.
Linus Carl Pauling, Jr.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Speaker Biography Title: Life With Father...And Mother Abstract: Reminiscences, many filtered through the mists of time, of growing up in the Pauling household as well as later contacts. These include such subjects as vocational attitudes, crime and punishment, holiday celebrations, camping, mealtime customs, the trials of bearing a famous name, Nobel pageantry and the responsibilities of being the eldest son.
Lily E. Kay
Harvard University, Boston, MA Speaker Biography Abstract: This talk focuses on the important role of controversies in science by examining Pauling's vision of Orthomolecular medicine from its origins in the 1930s, through it's elaboration in the 1970s, to it present status. I posit that, rather than being aberrant science, the Orthomolecular approach was a natural extension of Pauling's work in molecular biology, and, as such, could have merited serious scientific attention. While it is now classified (and protected) by NIH as "alternative/complementary", orthomolecular medicine is grounded in biochemical and physiological principles and has withstood considerable scientific scrutiny. Its legitimacy has been contested not because it has been unequivocally disproved but because of the challenges it has posed to clinical practice within the discourse of the medical-industrial complex, and due its controversial association with Pauling. A veteran of several vociferous controversies in science and politics, Pauling seemed to thrive on this mode of adjudication. While his various stands could be either dismissed or vindicated through the benefit of historical hindsight, not so in the case of orthomolecular medicine; it has continued to be valorized and demonized. Precisely because it has not been resolved, this controversy offers particularly instructive insights into biomedical politics in the second half of the twentieth century, and into Pauling's place in the turbulent terrain. [Editorial Note: Professor Lily Kay died on December 19, 2000. We shall miss her.]
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