April 1, 1968

Miss Nancy Deshon

525 Penfield Road

Rochester, New York 14625

Dear Miss Deshon:

I am pleased that you should write to me about your idea of developing a "love bomb", to help people to behave in a rational and moral manner.

I do not think that our problems can be solved in such a simple way. I believe that there is a molecular cure for the great evils in the world now. This cure is to provide people with the substances (food, vitamins, other valuable substances) that they need for good health and for a good life. More than two thirds of the people in the world are half starved. I hope that we can do something about this problem soon.

Sincerely,

Linus Pauling

April 4, 1968

Mrs. Anita Oser Pauling

"Aroda" 122 Vesenaz

Dear Anita:

I hope that you received my earlier letter and the copy of the Festschrift.

I enclose a rough budget for my research project on the molecular basis of schizophrenia, covering the period from 1 September 1968 to 31 July 1969.

I was given a grant of $36,500 (made to the University of California, San Diego) by the National Science Foundation last fall. This grant and a small amount of money remaining from gifts for support of my work in past years will keep the project going until 1 September 1968.

A former student and friend of mine, Mr. Chester Carlson, has agreed to make a gift of $42,000 to The Fund for the Republic, to support half of the project during the year beginning 1 September 1968. Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, President of The Fund for the Republic, has agreed that The Fund for the Republic will administer my research funds for me.

I have been hoping that some complications that are involved with application for the University of California to government agencies would be resolved so that I could apply to the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health for another grant, to support the work during the coming year. These complications have not yet been resolved, however, and in any case it would take a good part of a year, I think, before the application would be acted on, and the grant would become effective.

Is there the possibility that during the period between now and the middle of 1969 you could make a gift or a series of gifts, in total amount $42,000, to The Fund for the Republic (President, Dr. Robert M. Hutchins), Box 4068, Santa Barbara, California 93103, for support of my researches?

I shall keep you informed about the situation, and in particular about whether or not I am able to make an application to the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health.

Mama and I send our love to you and the children.

Sincerely,

Linus

LP:jj

April 9, 1968

Dr. Peter J. Pauling

Chemistry Department

University College London

Gower Street WC 1

London, England

Dear Peter:

I am terribly sorry not to have got a letter off to you earlier, in answer to yours of nearly a month ago. Mow mama and I are going to Amherst for two weeks, and I am dictating a letter, which my secretary will mail to you after signing it for me.

I have had some trouble in deciding what to say in answer to your question. I have decided that I do not understand the details of the matter well enough to be sure, but I think that you would be justified in writing a rather brief discussion of the matter of acetylcholine at the present time. One takes a chance in doing this—the chance that the statements would turn out later on to be wrong, but I think that it might well be worthwhile to take this chance.

We are still carrying on the experiments on vitamin C on schizophrenics. We agree with the earlier reports that there is something abnormal about vitamin C metabolism in schizophrenics, but we have not yet made any studies on chronic schizophrenics, and I do not yet know whether the very great abnormality reported by Vandercamp will turn out to be present in California chronic schizophrenics. I hope within a couple of months to have arrange-ments made with a couple of mental hospitals here for access to chronic schizophrenics.

Mama and I are getting along pretty well. I gave a lecture at Riverside (one of the University of California Centennial Charter Celebration Lectures) two days ago, and we saw not only Crellin and Lucy but also Barclay and Linda, who came over for a party that evening.

Much love from,

Daddy

LP:jj

P.S. I have read proof and have ordered reprints for the cobaltidyanide paper, with half of the reprints to be mailed directly to you. I judge that it is scheduled for the April issue. My schizophrenia paper is to appear in Science for 18 April. I have a little paper on Superconductivity coming out in the Proceedings in May.

Dear Mamma,

Thank you very much for your letter and for the money. I heard a bit about the Riverside trip from Crellin and from the Daddy. I am trying to get Diana to move out and get herself a place to live (perhaps in the other order). Crellin also thinks she should move. I do not know if my letters are having any effect. I hope she is not causing too much trouble. I will continue to try to get her to move.

Work is going very well, though I am rather lonely + not doing much. The machine works very well. If only we can get the data processed we shall be doing very well. I am considering trying to get a computer of my own to do the data processing and various other things. I do not know if I can get the money for it, but I think I shall try. I hope you are well. You must take care of yourself. We all need you. Things have looked bad in the US the last few weeks. In some ways I am glad I am here just now. I have been told by Americans there is more money for research here than in the U.S. The children seem well. I enjoy them very much. I have been taking them swimming the last few weeks.

Much Love,

Peter

April 23, 1968

Dr. R. E. Williams

Douglas Advanced Research Laboratories

5251 Bolsa Avenue

Huntington Beach, California 92646

Dear Dr. Williams:

I have been interested to read your paper (Douglas Paper 5016, April 1968) on a new space-filling polyhedron.

This is a subject that I have thought about from time to time. I shall not discuss all aspects of the subject in this letter, but shall attempt mainly the question that you ask in the last sentence of your paper, why the composition of faces exemplified in your polyhedron seems to be preferred in nature to the more regular composition of faces of the Kelvin polyhedron.

A number of years ago I prepared a paper on this subject, which has, however, remained unpublished. The argument that I used involved the values of the six angles about a tetrahedral point, common to four polyhedra. The maximum stability would be associated with equality of the six angles, each of which would then have the value of the tetrahedral angle, 109° 28 minutes. Of the regular polygons, the pentagon, with angle 108°, comes closest to this value, the hexagon, 120°, next, and the square, 90°, next, with deviation nearly twice as great as for the hexagon and 13 times as great as for the pentagon. The deviation for the hexagon is 7 times that for the pentagon, and in the opposite direction.

For small distortions from the regular tetrahedral directions, the sum of the six angles is close to 6 times the tetrahedral angle. It is not possible, accordingly, to construct a space-filling polyhedron with faces that are regular pentagons.

We see from the above values that the minimal amount of strain would be associated with use of a polyhedron with mainly pentagonal faces, and about one hexagonal face to every 8.4 pentagonal faces.

An approximation to this expected optimal structure is provided by the 46-H.O Clathrate crystals. The principal polyhedron is the tetrakaidecahedron with two hexagonal faces and 12 pentagonal faces. The ratio of pentagonal faces to hexagonal faces is 6 to one, somewhat smaller than the calculated 8.421. The structure is completed by inclusion of one third as many pentagonal dodecaheora as tetrakaidecahedra, leading to 9 pentagons per hexagon. The average bond angle is 109.33°, quite close to the tetrahedral angle.

The 136-H20 hydrate framework consists of two dodecahedra for each hexa-kaidecahedron, the latter having four hexagonal faces and 12 pentagonal faces. The ratio of pentagonal faces to hexagonal faces for this structure is 9 to one, and the average value of the angle is 109.2°, again close to the tetrahedral value.

I may point out that for the Kelvin polyhedron the average value (for six squares and eight hexagons) is 110°, half a degree larger than the tetrahedral value. The mean deviation from the tetrrhedral angle is 13.3° for the Kelvin polyhedron, 2.5° for the 46-H20 structure, and 2.4° for the 136-H20 structure. I think that it is not surprising that the two latter structures are such common ones for Clathrate hydrates.

I know many other structures involving polyhedra with pentagonal and hexagonal faces, coming together at tetrahedral points, but I have not yet found one in which all of the polyhedra are equivalent. I think that the best chance of finding one is by studying the two other tetrahaidecahedra with two hexagonal faces and 12 pentagonal faces, which may be described as the ortho and meta tetrakaidecahedro of this class, with the one in the 46-HjO structure called the para polyhedron.

I may mention that I do not think that there is any important reason for the polyhedra in nature to be all equivalent to one another, and that accordingly in my opinion the 46-H-O structure may be the best solution to the problem.

Sincerely,

Linus Pauling

cc: Dr. Art Robinson

24 April, 1968

Dear Papa,

Enclosed is a draft of the manuscript that I would like to submit for publication in the Proceedings. I think that we ought to be able to meet the 20 May deadline easily enough. Would you be willing to look over the ms, and return it to me with your comments, please?

The illustrations for Figures 1, 2, and 5 have been drawn for publication, while those for Figures 3 and 4 have not as yet. Figures 2 through 5 are currently on two sheets; I think it is evident how they will lie relative to one another in final form.

Thanks very much; if you have any question, give me a call. My extension is 3604.

Love

Crellin

April 26, 1968

Professor R. P. Mitra

Department of Chemistry

University of Delhi

Delhi, India

Dear Professor Mitra:

I am very pleased to learn from your letter that the Ford Foundation has given a grant to the University of Delhi, and that you are making a trip to the United States.

I regret that I am no longer in Pasadena. I am at the present time Professor of Chemistry in the University of California, San Diego. I am going to be away from San Diego during most of the time between 1 June and 15 June 1968. I am scheduled to make a trip, to give a commencement address at a university in New Mexico, and the lease on our house in La Jolla expires at that time, so that we shall be giving it up.

If you are planning to visit the University of California, San Diego, (which is about 100 miles south of Los Angeles), please let me know your schedule is. If it turns out that my wife and I are to be away at the time of your visit here, we shall make arrangements for you to see other members of the Department of Chemistry.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:jj

28 April 1968

Cable ans’d

Editor Chem in Brit. Asks you to review Double Helix at any length. Wire if you will

Love Peter

April 29, 1968

Mrs. Elinor Sakel

163 East 78th Street

New York City 10021

Dear Elinor:

I was sorry to have to send word that I could not come to New York. I have made so many engagements for the coming days that it seemed sensible not to try to rearrange my schedule.

Our post office department is terrible. Your letter of 23 April did not reach me until today, 29 April.

I have received many letters, in response to my article. A number of them, from outstanding physicians (an example is Dr. Walter C. Alvarez), have expressed strong approval of my activities in the mental disease field.

Cordially,

Linus Pauling

LP:jj