July 1, 1958

Academician A, I, 9
Academy of Sciences
Moscow, USSR

Dear Dr, Opalifn:

I am enclosing a paper which I hope will interest you, as many of
the basic ideas were stimulated by youybook “Origin of Life on the Earth",
Unfortunately the splendid 3rd edition of this did not reach us until the
mamiscript was already prepared so that we were umable to take full ade
vantage of your latest ideas, We were able to condense wuch discussion
of Agthenuis' hypothesis by reference to your book, how: ver,

Despite the strength of the negative argunents however, I do not
believe that a question as important as this should be absolutely dis-
posed of without reference to emperical tests, as outlined in the
accompanying paper. Our knowledge of the conditions of space is still
imperfect, and there my exist organisms which are far more resistant
to irradiation than those which have been tested under terrestrial
conditions, Furthernore we do not know the possibilit« of protection
of spores which might be embedded in a reflective coatincs the possi~
bilities of interplanetary transit under the protection of a actecoritic
planstoid, or from the earth to the moon during eclipse seem very
remote, but suggest that it would be difficult to anticipate all possible
mechanisms, Iam in full arreement on the a priori probabilities, but
as low as they are, the overwhelming importance of tie subfect still leads
me to encourage a cautious approach to inveabigations that sight lead to
serious biological contamination, even of the moon,

That special precautions should be taken to avert any contamination
of Mars cannot be questioned once the issue is raised,

Unfortunately, although the experimental stud: of life on other
planets is undoubtedly the most compelling scientific objective in
space research, biologists have hardly begun to think about this prow
blem in realistic terms, Since space-flight has become deeply en-‘angled
with the tragic political and military rivalr. of ovr tines, there is @%
great danger that furiemental scientific objectives will be overlooked, ~
especiall,; if biolosists of all co .ntries do not voice their interest
and concern in developing a sound program,

sy
Pa

It seems to me that the international scientific consressegy for
example those on nicrobiology ard on biochemistry this summer, would
furnish an excellent opportunity for free discussion of these issues
and perhaps for the formulation of a common statement of purpose, Tf
am already in correspordence with Professor VY, J, Timakov who will
represent microblolorists of tie 0,5.5.R, at the Congress in Stockholm,

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August 8, 1958, with a view to organizing such a discussion there, Tf
am writing to ask whether you cannot encourage suc’: discussions on the
part of your colleacues, and to ask whether you would not have a vital
interest in them yourself, It would please me very much if you could
plan to attend tee Stockholm Congress yourself, which will have much
of biocherical interest to you, so that we micht meet for fuller cri-
ticism of these arruments,

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Medical Genetics

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