Linus Pauling: I think it’s good, you know, to have, to try and develop a sort of theory of the
universe, while you are working, learning things. Try to couple everything that enters
your head, fitted into this theory. So that you can say "well, I understand the universe."
Well, of course, the fact is that forty-five years ago, it was very hard to do this.
Or the theory of the universe that you had, if you were a chemist, was a very simple
one, because you didn’t understand how chemical bonds were, you didn’t know what the
origin of, say, ferromagnetism was. Everything was, sort of, was uncertain, mystical.
Now as time has gone by, I think we can say that, well we can say that it seems, it
seems to me that we have a very good idea about the universe. Not only about the properties
of simple molecules but also of complicated molecules, high polymers, or proteins,
nucleic acids, polysaccharides, even such mechanisms as the mechanism of heredity.
And the younger generation starting out with a clear view of the universe, which may
not be completely correct, and of course is incomplete, ought to be able to clarify
the portions that still remain dark for us.
