Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

Science and Witchcraft
of orbitals - to explain the nature of the chemical bond that joins
atoms together into molecules. These ideas are now the bread and
butter of modern chemistry. But in the Soviet Union, Pauling's
work on structural chemistry was denounced as incompatible with
dialectical materialism and declared off-limits to Soviet chemists.
Undaunted by this criticism East and West - indeed, not even
slowed down - he went on to do monumental work on how
anaesthetics work, identified the cause of sickle cell anaemia (a
single nucleotide substitution in DNA), and showed how the
evolutionary history of life might be read by comparing the DNAs
of various organisms. He was hot on the trail of the structure of
DNA; Watson and Crick were consciously rushing to get there
before Pauling. The verdict on his assessment of Vitamin C is
apparently still out. 'That man is a real genius' was Albert
Einstein's assessment.
In all this time he continued to work for peace and amity. When
Ann and I once asked Pauling about the roots of his dedication to
social issues, he gave a memorable reply: 'I did it to be worthy of
the respect of my wife,' Helen Ava Pauling. He won a second
Nobel Prize, this one in peace, for his work on the nuclear test
ban, becoming the only person in history to win two unshared
Nobel Prizes.
There were some who saw Pauling as a troublemaker. Those
unhappy about social change may be tempted to view science itself
with suspicion. Technology is safe, they tend to think, readily
guided and controlled by industry and government. But pure
science, science for its own sake, science as curiosity, science that
might lead anywhere and challenge anything, that's another story.
Certain areas of pure science are the unique pathway to future
technologies - true enough - but the attitudes of science, if
applied broadly, can be perceived as dangerous. Through salaries,
social pressures, and the distribution of prestige and awards,
societies try to herd scientists into some reasonably safe middle
ground - between too little long-term technological progress and
too much short-term social criticism.
Unlike Pauling, many scientists consider their job to be science,
narrowly defined, and believe that engaging in politics or social
criticism is not just a distraction from but antithetical to the
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