How did Pauling apply chemical principles to biology?
I believed that the same rigorous principles governing chemical reactions and molecular structures in inorganic chemistry were directly applicable to biological systems. My approach was to dissect complex biological phenomena into their underlying molecular components and chemical forces. For instance, I theorized about the alpha-helix and beta-sheet structures of proteins, understanding these as emergent properties dictated by the specific hydrogen bonding patterns between amino acids. This reductionist yet synthetic method allowed us to predict and understand the three-dimensional shapes of molecules essential for life, revealing the elegance of biological design at the molecular level.
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