Chapter 17 Summary

Linus Pauling never got to London. He was held up at the airport. Due to his political views, opposing Senator McCarthy, who led the American Senate's investigation (ultimately deemed unconstitutional) of communism in the United States, Pauling was not permitted to travel to England to speak at the scientific conference. The English scientists were appalled that the United States would take this action. The conference was, overall, uneventful. Watson found out from Maurice that King's lab had not used the molds that the Cambridge lab had lent them for working on building a structural model of DNA. Maurice promised to return the molds. He felt certain that Watson and Crick were no longer working on DNA.

Chapter 17 Analysis

Yet another way that human interaction affects science is addressed in this section. Pauling's personal politics prevent him from travelling to England to speak at...