Emma Nora Barlow, Lady Barlow, was a British botanist and geneticist.
15 Facts About Nora Barlow
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The granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, Barlow began her academic career studying botany at Cambridge under Frederick Blackman, and continued her studies in the new field of genetics under William Bateson from 1904 to 1906.
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Nora Barlow became Lady Barlow after her husband was knighted in 1938.
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Nora Barlow worked as a research assistant at the John Innes Institute from 1905, and studied plant genetics under William Bateson at Cambridge in 1906, a centre for pioneering genetics research, and was an active member of the Cambridge University Genetics Society.
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Nora Barlow published papers on her study of the primrose flower in 1913 and 1923 which drew on her grandfather's The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species.
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Nora Barlow did not publish any further work after her marriage, but she continued her study in genetics throughout her family life.
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Nora Barlow carried out controlled cross pollinations, including in aquilegia.
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Nora Barlow visited the John Innes Institute every summer to observe the plants that had grown there.
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Nora Barlow was among the founders of the Genetics Society in 1919, and regularly attended its meetings, maintaining contact with friends including Ronald Fisher.
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Nora Barlow's first book as editor was a new edition of The Voyage of the Beagle.
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Nora Barlow published an unexpurgated version of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, which had previously had personal and religious material removed by his son, Francis.
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Nora Barlow edited several collections of letters and notes, including correspondence between Darwin and John Stevens Henslow, his mentor.
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The Columbine flower cultivar Aquilegia "Nora Barlow" is named after her.
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Nora Barlow appears as a supporting character in Scott Westerfeld's 2009 young adult steampunk novels Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath.
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In Westerfeld's alternate history series, Nora Barlow is re-imagined as a prominent genetic engineer and diplomat.