Two-time Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling turned 90 Thursday, still steadfastly certain that his passion for scientific detail and mega-doses of vitamin C have paid off.
Despite doubts in scientific circles and general rejection by the medical community, Pauling's institute near Stanford University conducts research on a vitamin C panacea Pauling insists will prolong life of a healthy person and could cure some cancers and heart disease."If people took high doses of vitamin C (along with other vitamins) they would live 25 to 35 years longer," Pauling said. "I don't make statements without being able to make some sort of a calculation, and I've calculated that one."
Pauling still works seven hours a day and still mixes his prolific production of scientific papers with political barrages that have angered many elected officials, including a recent newspaper ad arguing against a Persian Gulf war.
However many may disagree with Pauling's passionate belief in the ability of vitamin C to prolong life or with his humanitarian rage against the "immorality" of war, few who have met Pauling have come away without at least wondering whether Pauling may be, if not right, then not altogether wrong.
He doesn't look 90 and says he doesn't feel 90. "I find it hard to believe I am 90," he chuckles, "but then, it's nothing so special."
Pauling's own personal regimen includes a daily dose of vitamin C that is 200 times more than the U.S. government says is needed by a human.