Breathing on the Roof of the World : Memoir of a Respiratory Physiologist / by John B. West.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

West, John B., author.

Contributor:

SpringerLink (Online service)

Series:

Springer biographies 2365-0613

Springer Biographies, 2365-0613

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine.

History.

Human physiology.

Respiratory organs--Diseases.

Respiratory organs.

Sports sciences.

Biomedicine.

Local Subjects:

Biomedicine.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Contained In:

Springer eBooks

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Springer New York : Imprint: Springer, 2017.

System Details:

text file PDF

Summary:

This book is an informal autobiography by John West MD PhD. He obtained his medical degree in Adelaide, Australia and then spent 15 years mainly at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital in London where he, with others, used radioactive oxygen-15 to make the first description of the uneven regional distribution of blood flow in the lung. In 1960-1961, he was a member of the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary who had made the first ascent of Mt Everest 7 years before. During the expedition about 6 scientists spent up to three months at an altitude of 5800 m studying the effects of this very high altitude on human physiology. Because of his interests in the effects of gravity on the lung, Dr. West spent a year at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California in 1967-1968. While there he submitted a proposal to NASA to measure pulmonary function of astronauts in space, and this was funded. Later, in 1981 he organized the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest during which the first measurements of human physiology on the summit, altitude 8848 m, were obtained. In the 1990's, Dr. West's team made the first comprehensive measurements of pulmonary function of astronauts in space using SpaceLab which was taken up in the Shuttle.

Contents:

- Early Days, 1928-1945

Adelaide University and Medical Residency, 1946-1953

London and Llandough, 1953-1956.-Postgraduate Medical School, 1956-1960

Silver Hut Expedition, 1960-1961

University of Buffalo and the Postgraduate Medical School, 1961-1967

Palo Alto and the NASA Ames Research Center, 1967-1968

University of California, San Diego, 1969-1981

American Medical Research Expedition to Everest, 1981

Studies on astronauts in space

Other research projects

Comments on scientific achievements.

Other Format:

Printed edition:

ISBN:

9781493971220

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.