MAR 41965

United States Army
BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES
Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21701

SMUFD-BR-C 3 March 1965

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics
School of Medicine
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Mr. William Longenecker in our Tech. Information Center has just
given me a copy of your NASA-CR 57029 Report on "DENDRAL-64", after
first alerting our mutual interest in your more recent "Topological
Mapping of Organic Molecules", from Proc. N.A.S. 53, 134-139 (1965).

In my 1952 C&EN report, I acknowledged that this was a challenge
for the topologists rather than organic chemists, yet in these twelve
long and contested years I have not seen a comprehensive recitation
of polyhedral forms such as yours. Have you, for example, (1) checked
Henze & Blair's alkane totals with a more direct approach, or (2) con-

firmed the 43 fundamental types of tricyclic structures (an expansion
of the 8 types of tricyclics and 2 types of bicyclics)?

I would be very pleased to establish correspondence with you for
an occasional exchange of ideas, as this chemical information management
sorely needs expert R&D. attention from hybrid chemist-topologists. You
must have realized this yourself when you read The Hunsberger "Survey
of CN Systems"!

Sincerely,

WW ’mn, y, W worsen

WILLIAM J. WISWESSER
Research Chemist
Crops Division

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