The long line of Nobel Prize winners is not without its history of controversy. Kary Mullis, who invented the PCR, is an AIDS denialist. James Watson, of Watson and Crick, said “some anti-Semitism is justified,” amongst other horrifically racist statements. Fritz Haber won the prize for inventing chemical fertilizer that shifted the face of agriculture, but he also invented deadly chemical weapons.
Then there’s the only guy who’s been awarded two unshared Nobel prizes. Guess how fucking bonkers he went?
Today’s Moment of Science… the vitamin C guy.
Linus Pauling was pretty fucking smart. Know how we use ‘quantum’ as coded language for ‘this is highly technical smart people shit” in every sci-fi film now? He’s one of the people who made quantum chemistry into a thing.
With his chemical engineering degree, he wanted to investigate the structure of the atom and atomic bonding. His work led to a clearer understanding of how electrons move around the nucleus of the atom, known today as orbital hybridization theory. For this research and its applications in elucidating complex chemical structures, he won his first Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954.
His research spanned across disciplines. He did groundbreaking research into sickle cell anemia, providing firm proof the disease was caused by an inherited abnormal protein. He opted not to do research on the Manhattan project during WWII, but he made a lot of other smashy explodey stuff for the government. Armor piercing shells, explosives, and rocket propellant? Oh baby.
For this he had regrets, and went on a hardcore “nukes are bad” tour. He was so “yay peace” that the US government temporarily revoked his passport under suspicion that he was a communist. As you do.
Pauling won his second Nobel in 1962 for his anti-nuclear activism.
He did a lot of incredible things in his career. So many disparate fields of study turned into mere molecules for him to tame and understand. Everything Elon Musk fans think Elon Musk is? That’s who Linus Pauling really was.
You’ve perhaps heard some version of this story in which he lost his mind and just started shouting the good word of vitamin C from the rooftops. Well.
In 1941, he was diagnosed with kidney inflammation. It was managed dietarily, something that’s pretty standard now but seemed novel to Pauling. His fascination with using nutrition for medicine grew from there. In a 1966 speech, he said he’d like to live another twenty years to see how far our innovations would advance. A biochemist in the audience told him to forget about twenty years. Think bigger. Think fifty years.
All he had to do was eat fucking buckets of vitamin C.
To be fair, there wasn’t porn on the internet in 1966. I’d have downed some orange juice, too.
But this is where any defense of Pauling ends.
He was so used to being the guy who understood everything before anyone else. Why would this be any different? He’d unlocked long hidden secrets of the atom, genetics, and diseases, so why would the mystery of extending life be a key he couldn’t turn?
He published a slew of books- with no firm scientific backing- suggesting that absurdly high doses of vitamin C could cure or prevent everything from the common cold to cancer. Want to live forever? Vitamin C. Want to end the flu? Vitamin C. When the HIV epidemic started in the 1980s? Pauling was a one hit wonder, and he was playing in the key of C.
The recommended daily allowance of vitamin C is 65-90mg, which you can get from one medium orange. The recommended upper limit is 2,000mg. Pauling recommended and claimed to consume 18,000mg daily, which is enough to cause toxic effects in most people.
Pauling and a collaborator did publish a study suggesting they had evidence of improved survival rate for cancer patients when treatment was supplemented with vitamin C. However, the findings have never been replicated. Same with his claims about treating the cold, flu, AIDS, and goddamn everything else.
He also supported forehead tattoos for people with genetic diseases- like sickle cell anemia- to stop ‘undesirables’ from breeding. Like any good batshit eugenicist would.
Pauling’s wife Ava skipped chemotherapy against her doctor’s advice when she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, opting to use vitamin C treatments instead. She succumbed to the disease at age 77. His daily eighteen grams of vitamin C also wasn’t enough to stop the prostate cancer that killed him, the legend and the crank, at the ripe old age of 93.
This has been your daily Moment of Science, reminding you that vitamin C is still the best known treatment for scurvy.
I’m becoming so accustomed to A+++ essays from you that I’m starting to quibble about little things. I remember in the ’70s, and megavitamin everything. You don’t want to eat walrus liver because it’s got toxic levels of vitamin A (deadly to some Arctic explorers), You want to assimilate a megavitamin-dose of vitamin C …. At that time, the ‘sensible’ response to that was if you ingest that much vitamin C, the likely effect is going to be very expensive urine. (i.e. body levels were self-regulating.) You probably know a lot more than I do about this subject, so …. If and when you want to start checking out the science, you will find there’s a lot more to Elon Musk than cynical outsiders realize. I’m pleased that I can choose ‘genteel poverty’, even though I’m a multimillionaire on paper. But far, far more important are the implications of fully-renewable battery-stored energy. Check out Hornsdale, Australia. ***** Your essays are proof that there is intelligent life on this planet!
Linda Richards is a graduate Ph.D. (ABD) student in the history of science at OSU. … http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/forum/linus-pauling-was-an-equality-activist-pioneer-of-genetic-counseling-not-eugenicist-racist/article_b2eb29cb-233c-529d-8fef-eef4aaf486ac.html
Great article as always. Any chance that you have ever down an article on MRSA in a joint (not the surface kind).
Sounds like you’re angry about something. Did vitamin C upset your tummy? You’ve provided nothing in terms of documentation or references; just rehash of all the claims and disclaims that have been circulating for decades. Your article is a disservice Pauling and journalism. Yawn.
This is all pretty well documented but by all means, start with insults and pretend I should take you seriously.