When Itano and Singer first carried out the electrophoresis experiments, Pauling was in England. He spent from January to September of 1948 at Oxford on an Eastman Professorship and gave over sixty lectures on various topics, including hemoglobin. Hemoglobin was not his only concern during this time. He spent time developing a theory of metals and sketched out the primary configuration of proteins, later called the alpha-helix.

While in England, Pauling kept abreast of developments at Caltech through correspondence with his colleagues, especially Robert B. Corey who was chairing the department in Pauling's absence. In February, Dan Campbell informed Pauling that Itano's experiments with hemoglobin were producing interesting results and conveyed his confidence in Singer's abilities. In June, Pauling relayed to Corey that he went to the Barcroft Memorial Conference on hemoglobin and got many ideas from it. However, he still had three more months before his return.