Science: Resonance Heresy

From now on, Soviet chemists will have to watch their test tubes more carefully than ever: heresy may be lurking in any one of them. Last week the California Institute of Technology issued a report on how a theory developed by CalTech's outstanding chemist, Professor Linus Pauling, had been the downfall of four leading Soviet chemists.

The Pauling resonance theory of chemical bonds is of little interest to the toiling masses. It uses the difficult methods of quantum mechanics to explain how the "resonance" (internal vibrations) of atoms makes them join together into molecules. Parts of the theory are still to...

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