With a small barometer and a 1913 scholarly publication, Peter Ratcliffe draws attention to an important scientific forerunner. Mabel Purefoy Fitzgerald, a female pioneer scientist, participated in John Scott Haldane’s expedition to Pike’s Peak in Colorado to study changes in the body at high elevations. Her study became the first to show that the amount of haemoglobin in the body increases as oxygen levels decline, which happens at high elevations. The barometer was used to measure atmospheric pressure during the experiments. Ratcliffe’s own research has made a decisive contribution to understanding the molecular biological mechanism underlying Purefoy Fitzgerald’s discovery.
Following the request of Peter Ratcliffe, the barometer was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by David Paterson in 2019.
