Gamow worked on
Phycomyces blakesleeanus during
postdoctoral research under
Max Delbrück at
Caltech. At CU-Boulder, he did
Phycomyces research for over twenty years, mainly on the avoidance and anemotropic responses, helical growth, and cell-wall mechanical properties. He also studied the infrared-detectors of the
Boa constrictor. An avid outdoorsman, Gamow developed a number of inventions for safety in outdoor activities. His first important one, patented in 1990, was the
Gamow bag enabling mountain climbers to avoid
altitude sickness by raising the surrounding pressure.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first expedition leader to summit
Mount Everest, wrote him in congratulation. Another was the Shallow Underwater Breathing Apparatus ("SUBA"), a pressurized
snorkel system permitting swimmers to breathe easily as deep as ten feet under water. Gamow also worked in
bionics, on an
orthopedic knee brace that stores energy within a spring from the
hamstring and redirects it to the
quadriceps.
Patents • — Hyperbaric chamber • — Hyperbaric chamber • — Underwater breathing apparatus • — Hyperbaric chamber closure means • — Shoe and foot prosthesis with a coupled spring system • — Hyperbaric chamber and exercise environment • — Hypobaric sleeping chamber • — In-line skate walking guard • — Shoe and foot prosthesis with bending beam spring structures • — Underwater breathing apparatus with pressurized snorkel • — Shoe and foot prosthesis with bending beam spring structures
University of Colorado termination In 2002, a former assistant of Gamow, filed a lawsuit against the
University of Colorado in which it alleged sexual harassment and sexual assault of seven women. After the lawsuit was filed, the university began to take steps to terminate Gamow. In 2004, the CU Board of Regents unanimously upheld the recommendation to dismiss Gamow for "moral turpitude". Gamow filed a lawsuit against CU in an attempt to be reinstated. ==References==