Alpha Helix and Linus Pauling

This is a sculpture honoring Linus Pauling, world renowned scientist and humanitarian and two-time Nobel prize winner, who spent his early years right here in Portland in this house on Hawthorne Boulevard, my One Street project. The sculpture depicts the alpha helix, the protein structure that Pauling discovered. He also identified sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease, and was influential in his fields of chemistry - for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1954 -and molecular biology. But he is perhaps best known in the mainstream for his controversial advocacy of Vitamin C for treating everything from colds to cancer. Pauling was a peace activist during and after WWII and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his anti-nuclear work.

There are a couple of short videos here about Pauling, the Linus Pauling House on Hawthorne and the Alpha Helix sculpture and the artist who created it.

Note of interest: Pauling is the only Nobel Prize winner to have won two unshared prizes.

Enjoy the photo LARGE.