Hodgkin and Pauling: Two friends with a common cause

This blog is an incredible tale about two scientists, both Nobel laureates, who eventually became friends for life. Dorothy Hodgkin, was a British Chemist was third woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her discovery of structure of Vitamin B12. She also discovered structures of Penicillin and Insulin.

On the other hand, Linus Pauling is the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel Prizes in 1954 and 1962 for Chemistry and Peace respectively. He established nature of chemical bond between atoms, discovered molecular cause of sickle cell anemia, developed an accurate oxygen meter for submarines, helped create synthetic plasma, and determined the structure of proteins. During the cold war, both were also ardent anti-nuclear disarmament activists.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, was born on 12th May 1910 in Egypt. Her parents were then posted in Cairo, and later moved to Sudan and Jordan. Meanwhile, since age of 4, she lived with her grandparents in London, and would occasionally visit her parents during her vacations. In 1921 she entered high school. Here she famously fought to be part of a chemistry class that was traditionally reserved just for boys. She graduated in Chemistry in 1932 from Oxford, and was interested in chemical structure of crystals. Her work was on X-ray crystallography. By the time she completed her PhD in 1937, she had published the structure of enzyme Pepsin. This was the first protein whose complete structure could be mapped.

Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling was born on 28 February 1901 in Oregon, US. His father died of Peptic Ulcer, when he was 9. He and his two sisters were raised by his mother as a single parent. After completing high school, he took various odd jobs to support his family. In 1917 he entered Oregon state University for his graduate studies. He already had a keen interest in Chemistry.

After his graduation in 1922, he entered California Institute of technology (Caltech), where he would spend many more years. His focus was on quantum mechanics, and structure of atoms. By 1936 Pauling was a professor and chairman of division of chemistry at Caltech. He had already published extensively on nature of chemical bonds, atomic structures and electrical interactions between atomic particles.

Biological structures and shared interests

Dorothy Hodgkin worked for rest of her life at Oxford. She was a pioneer in X-ray crystallography of biological substances. In 1945, she discovered structure of Penicillin. Ten years later in 1955, she elucidated structure of Vitamin B12, and in 1969 structure of Insulin. These structures help us understand these biological molecules better, and paved way to make many more synthetic compounds.

Linus Pauling established nature of Chemical Bond in 1930s. He laid rules that helped researchers across the world determine atomic structures of various substances. This would not be possible unless we knew how different atoms interact with each other.

His later interest was on structure and functionality of Hemoglobin. He determined molecular structure of hemoglobin, and mechanism of how does it take up and shed oxygen. In 1949, Pauling and colleagues published molecular basis for Sickle cell Disease. This was first proof of a human disease being caused by an abnormal protein, and first disease understood at the molecular level.

Friendship and work beyond science

By the end of the second world war, Dorothy Hodgkin and Linus Pauling along with their spouses Thomas and Ava, had become friends. While Linus had worked on many defense related projects during the war, Manhattan project and development and deployment of Atomic Bomb in 1945, changed him forever. He became a peace activist. Next year in 1946, he joined the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by Albert Einstein. This committee took over the task of warning public about the dangers of nuclear warfare.

This stance was not taken kindly by the then US Government, who revoked his passport in the year 1952. He shared this sad news in a letter with Dorothy, as he was not able to attend a conference in London. Dorothy wrote back to Linus, expressing her shock and dismay. Linus Pauling was awarded 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, not for any single discovery, but for a whole body of work. Linus and Ava’s full passport was restored only then, to enable then to attend the ceremony.

Correspondence between Pauling to Hodgkin

Linus and Dorothy shared many other letters, that are now in public domain. In one of the letters, Pauling suggests nomination of Dorothy for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Eventually, Dorothy Hodgkin was awarded 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery about structure of Vitamin B12.

Anti-nuclear activism

After 1955, Linus Pauling became a peace activist. He submitted many petitions along with fellow scientists, about dangers of nuclear warfare. He was concerned about genetic mutations, and nuclear fall out. His concentrated efforts changed public perception, and led to many anti-nuclear protests. These efforts were followed by the Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by US President John F. Kennedy and his USSR counterpart Nikita Khrushchev. On the day that the treaty went into force, October 10, 1963, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962. Meanwhile Pauling was criticized at home, and often labelled as a spokesmen for the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile Dorothy was also actively engaged in peace efforts. She traveled to China as well as Moscow to meet fellow scientists. Her husband was a member of Communist Party, and as a result she was banned from entering the United States in 1953. In 1961 she and her husband Thomas (an anthropologist) had moved to Ghana, where she was at the time of the Nobel Prize announcement.

IPPNW and Pugwash conference

In 1980, medical scientists from US and USSR set up an organization – International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Its task was to advocate about medical risks of a nuclear war. Linus and Dorothy supported these efforts, however were not part of these efforts. In 1985, IPPNW was awarded Nobel Peace prize for its anti-nuclear efforts.

Both Linus and Dorothy continued to support other anti-war efforts. They were active with the Pugwash conference (an organization founded in 1957 to bring together anti-war scientists). Dorothy was its chairperson from 1976 to 1988. The conference actively worked for disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. In 1995, Pugwash conference was awarded a Nobel Peace prize.

Epilogue

Hodgkin and Pauling continued to exchange many professional as well as personnel letters. On December 15, 1981, Hodgkin writes to Pauling to mourn the death of Ava Helen, which had occurred on December 7. Some six months later, on June 4, 1982, Pauling writes to Hodgkin in order to express his sympathy after hearing that her husband Thomas had died.

Dorothy Hodgkins had Rheumatoid arthritis, since she was 26. She had become frail in her later years, and however she attended crystallography conference in China in 1993. Linus Pauling had developed Prostate Cancer. He became an ardent supporter of mega-doses of vitamins (particularly Vitamin C) to prevent Cancer.

Dorothy Hodgkin died in July 1994 in England, at the age of 84. Linus Pauling died a month later in August 1994 in California. He was 93. Their legacy in terms of their path-breaking work on structures of biological substances, as well as anti-nuclear war efforts lives on.