In 1984, Pauling wrote an autobiographical commentary on The Nature of the Chemical Bond for the "Citation Classic" section of the Institute for Scientific Information's Current Contents. He noted that "from 1920 to 1939, great progress was made in the understanding of the nature of the chemical bond through the determination of the structure of crystals by X-ray diffraction and of the structure of gas molecules by electron diffraction and in the application of the theory of quantum mechanics to the problem." He continued, "the results of these studies, with emphasis on my research on the nature of the chemical bond between 1927 and 1933, were summarized in this book. The book has had a significant impact both on chemical education and on research in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, mineralogy, biochemistry, molecular biology, and medicine." (See Current Contents: Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences, January 28, 1985, page 16.)
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