He decided to gamble: Lehrer 2009 gives a detailed description of the decision process.

cognitive bias known as the framing effect: Kahneman 2011, pp. 363–74, gives many illuminating examples. Interestingly, fMRI studies show that the emotional responses in the amygdala (the brain region associated with negative feelings) in people who realize that “90 percent lean” is identical to “10 percent fat” are very similar to those in people who are actually affected by the negative frame. The differences arise in the prefrontal cortex, which controls the emotions by thinking rationally about them. See, eg, de Martino et al. 2006.

“Biologists probably consider”: Letter from Linus Pauling to Henry Allen Moe, on December 19, 1952. At http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna;shcorr/sci14.014.7-lp-moe-19521219.html.

“If that was such an important”: This comment by Ava Helen was repeated by Pauling many times. See, eg, Hager 1995, p. 431.

“The proposed structure accordingly permits”: Pauling and Corey 1953, p. 96. This was an important point, since it shows that Pauling did relate the structure to information carrying capacity. Pauling and Corey also referred to the issue of amino acid sequencing, noting that in terms of the dimensions involved, nucleic acids are “well-suited to the ordering of amino-acid residues in a protein.” This point was clearly made by Matt Meselson in his talk about Pauling. At http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/1995/paulingconference/video-s3-2-meselson.html.