| Arthur B. Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | University of California, San Diego |
| Alma mater | University of California, San Diego, California Institute of Technology |
Arthur B. Robinson (born 1942) is an American scientist and activist.[1] He is the founder, president, and professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which describes itself as a research institute that studies protein chemistry, nutrition, and predictive and preventive medicine. He is also the developer of the Robinson Curriculum, described as a "self-teaching" "K-12 home school curriculum".[2] In 2010, he was the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon's 4th congressional district.[3]
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Art Robinson has an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Caltech and a doctorate from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He was appointed to the UCSD faculty immediately after getting his Ph.D.[1] He resigned his position at UCSD in 1972.
In 1973 Robinson was a co-founder, along with Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling (who he later successfully sued for defamation in a case whose files run to 18.3 linear feet)[4] and Keene Dimick, of the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine, later renamed the Linus Pauling Institute, in Menlo Park, California.[5] Orthomolecular medicine is an alternative theory of medicine that often relies on the use of mega-doses of vitamins.
Arthur Robinson and wife Laurelee, along with sons Zachary and Noah, moved to Oregon in 1980. There are today six Robinson children: Joshua, Matthew, Noah, Zachary, Bethany, Arynne. Lauralee died of acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis in 1988 at age 43, leaving 6 children then aged 12, 8, 6, 6 and 16 months.
In May 2010 Robinson won the Republican primary for Oregon's 4th congressional district, earning the right to face Democratic incumbent Peter DeFazio in the November 2010 general election.[6]
He supports the use of nuclear power as a clean, safe and economical alternative energy source and the use of wind and solar in applicable environments. He opposed the Obama administration's health care proposal, supports tort reform, proposes increasing border security to help stop illegal immigration, suggests deporting illegal immigrants, and is in favor of legal immigration.[7]
He received about 45% of the vote, losing to the incumbent Peter Defazio.
In 2011 Robinson alleged that Oregon State University was part of a conspiracy to retaliate against him for his political activism by expelling his three children, one of whom is a PhD candidate, from the Oregon State University Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics department.[8][9] Art Robinson has stated in regards to the controversy "I have no proof, that is what I believe."[10] Art Robinson has fought with university administrations over the education of four of his six children, he mounted a similar attack on Southern Oregon University to force them to allow his daughter Arynne to graduate without meeting university requirements because he felt the university courses were "specifically designed to destroy her faith, her innocence, her self-respect, and her happiness in her way of life"[1] Unlike Oregon State University, Southern Oregon University backed down in the face of Art's threats of "law suits, adverse publicity, and 'an ever increasing telephone, fax, and letter campaign'" mounted by his home schooling devotees.[1]
In a statement, OSU would not comment on matters concerning the students without their consent, but declared all the other claims, including those about the faculty, to be unfounded.[11]
He is currently the editor and publisher of the newsletter Access to Energy,[12] which was originated by Petr Beckmann.
With his son, Noah E. Robinson, Ph.D., Arthur Robinson authored the Molecular Clocks: Deamidation of Asparaginyl and Glutaminyl Residues in Peptides and Proteins [13] which includes a review of the scientific literature on deamidation; His work has been discussed in later publications on this subject.[14] Robinson and coworkers formulated the amide molecular clock hypothesis in 1970.[15]
An American Spectator article concerning Dr. Robinson's history[1] includes discussion of his association with Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling (Chemistry, 1954 and Peace, 1962), who referred to Robinson as "my principal and most valued collaborator." However, Robinson's research revealed "highly embarrassing" results proving conclusively that Pauling's data on vitamin C was false. According to the article:
A sharp divergence of political opinion between the two men also became apparent. A few years after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Pauling also won the Lenin Peace Prize. He told Robinson that he was more proud of the Soviet than the Norwegian award. For his part, in the spring of 1978 Robinson had given a speech at the Cato Institute, then in San Francisco, deploring the government funding of science as harmful to the independence that is essential to scientific inquiry.[1]
In 1986, Robinson and Dr. Gary North co-authored the pro-civil defense nuclear war survival book Fighting Chance: Ten Feet to Survival (ISBN 0930462106)
Robinson was the senior author of the Oregon Petition, a petition that claimed over 31,000 people who identified themselves as scientists or engineers (in 2008), intended to show that scientific consensus does not exist on the subject of global warming.[16] Robinson is a signatory to A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism, a petition produced by the Discovery Institute that expresses skepticism about the ability of natural selection to account for the complexity of life, and encouraging careful examination of the evidence for "Darwinian theory".
During Robinson's 2010 congressional run, controversy arose over racist content in one of the G. A. Henty novels sold on his website.[17] Robinson's views expressed in Access to Energy and on his websites aroused controversy, including his belief that public education should be abolished and support of the theory of radiation hormesis (that small amounts of radiation are beneficial to life).[18] Specifically he wrote that the solution to radioactive waste was to "dilute it to a low radiation level and sprinkle it over the ocean - or even over America after hormesis is better understood” [19]
Art Robinson has also written critically of child protective services after an incident in New Jersey. Child protective services were called in after Matthew Robinson was taken to a hospital. Art Robinson writes: "Back at the hospital, they {child protective services} still refused to release Matthew. However, after I agreed to participate in meetings and examinations the next morning, they let him out. We, of course, immediately drove out of the state." [20] Art Robinson alleges child protective services have pecuniary motives in investigating child abuse: "When a child is seized, these programs provide over $100,000 per child which pays the people who seize the child and their retainers in the police dept., child services, foster homes, etc. Our family was worth at least $500,000 to the social services industry of New Jersey." [21]