Editing Linus Pauling (section)

===Structure of the atomic nucleus===
[[File:Linus Pauling 1962.jpg|thumb|Pauling in 1962]]

On September 16, 1952, Pauling opened a new research notebook with the words "I have decided to attack the problem of the structure of nuclei." On October 15, 1965, Pauling published his Close-Packed Spheron Model of the atomic nucleus in two well respected journals, ''Science'' and the ''[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]]''.<ref name="SpheronPNAS">{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=1965 |title=The Close-Packed Spheron Model of atomic nuclei and its relation to the shell model |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=989–994 |bibcode=1965PNAS...54..989P |doi=10.1073/pnas.54.4.989 |pmc=219778 |pmid=16578621 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="SpheronScience">{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=L |date=October 15, 1965 |title=The close-packed-spheron theory and nuclear fission |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-026.html |journal=Science |volume=150 |issue=3694 |pages=297–305 |bibcode=1965Sci...150..297P |doi=10.1126/science.150.3694.297 |pmid=17742357}}</ref> For nearly three decades, until his death in 1994, Pauling published numerous papers on his spheron cluster model.<ref name=SpheronPNAS/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=July 1966 |title=The close-packed-spheron theory of nuclear structure and the neutron excess for stable nuclei (Dedicated to the seventieth anniversary of Professor Horia Hulubei) |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-048.html |access-date=August 5, 2007 |publisher=Revue Roumain de Physique}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=December 1967 |title=Magnetic-moment evidence for the polyspheron structure of the lighter atomic nuclei |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-068.html |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=2175–2178 |bibcode=1967PNAS...58.2175P |doi=10.1073/pnas.58.6.2175 |pmc=223816 |pmid=16591577 |access-date=August 5, 2007 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=November 1969 |title=Orbiting clusters in atomic nuclei |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-075.html |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |publisher=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=807–9 |bibcode=1969PNAS...64..807P |doi=10.1073/pnas.64.3.807 |pmc=223305 |pmid=16591799 |access-date=August 5, 2007 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Pauling |first1=Linus |last2=Arthur B. Robinson |year=1975 |title=Rotating clusters in nuclei |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-084.html |access-date=August 5, 2007 |publisher=Canadian Journal of Physics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=February 1991 |title=Transition from one revolving cluster to two revolving clusters in the ground-state rotational bands of nuclei in the lanthanon region |url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/rnb/26/26-125.html |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.]] |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=820–823 |bibcode=1991PNAS...88..820P |doi=10.1073/pnas.88.3.820 |pmc=50905 |pmid=11607150 |access-date=August 5, 2007 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The basic idea behind Pauling's spheron model is that a nucleus can be viewed as a set of "clusters of nucleons". The basic nucleon clusters include the [[deuteron]] [np], [[helion (chemistry)|helion]] [pnp], and [[tritium|triton]] [npn]. [[Even-even nucleus|Even–even nuclei]] are described as being composed of clusters of [[alpha particle]]s, as has often been done for light nuclei.<ref name="Clusters">{{Cite journal |last=Pauling |first=Linus |date=November 15, 1969 |title=Orbiting clusters in atomic nuclei |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=807–809 |bibcode=1969PNAS...64..807P |doi=10.1073/pnas.64.3.807 |pmc=223305 |pmid=16591799 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Pauling attempted to derive the shell structure of nuclei from pure geometrical considerations related to [[Platonic solids]] rather than starting from an independent particle model as in the usual [[Nuclear shell model|shell model]]. In an interview given in 1990 Pauling commented on his model:<ref name="AOA">{{Cite web |title=Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D. Biography and Interview |url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/#interview/ |website=www.achievement.org |publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Now recently, I have been trying to determine detailed structures of atomic nuclei by analyzing the ground state and excited state vibrational bends, as observed experimentally. From reading the physics literature, Physical Review Letters and other journals, I know that many physicists are interested in atomic nuclei, but none of them, so far as I have been able to discover, has been attacking the problem in the same way that I attack it. So I just move along at my own speed, making calculations ...}}