48: Food for Thought

Once chemists realized that Staudinger was right, that molecules could be huge, protein research zoomed ahead. We hear of Gilbert Adair's study of hemoglobin, of the battle James Sumner had over the crystallization of urease with Richard Willstätter, and then the huge research William Astbury did on various keratin structures. Linus Pauling enters our story with his amazing work on the alpha-helix and beta-sheet generic forms that proteins take. Finally, Pauling announced in 1945 the first known genetic disease, sickle-cell anemia.

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