MAR 3 1979

HARVARD UNIVERSITY &
Of
SCE oF Tye PRESS

THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES

16 Divinity AVENUE
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02138

 

March 28, 1979

Joshua Lederberg
President

Rockefeller University
York Avenue E. 66th

New York, New York 10021

Dear Joshua:

I enjoyed immensely your literate and insightful discussion on
the current scene last Friday at Mt. Sinai. You said two things
that rather surprised me. First, if I understood you correctly,
you said that the radiation from Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not
significantly affect the leukemia incidence, indicating how
difficult it was to get direct evidence concerning the effect
of mutagens-carcinogens on humans. The enclosed two pages

from John Cairns' new book on cancer state the contrary, and

in fact, make strong qualitative claims. I gather these con-
clusions are based on Rossi and Kellerer (1974) Radiat. Res.

58, 131-140. Is there any reason to doubt these findings?

The second statement concerns the XYY business. Here my in-
formation is completely anecdotal, but I had thought that a
recent study, perhaps conducted in Denmark, indicated that

the only unusual attribute of XYY's was a slight tendency to-
ward mental slowness - hence a greater tendency to be caught
if criminal. If you have a moment to set me straight on these
matters, I would appreciate it, but they are merely matters of
curiosity and there is no urgency.

Sincerely,

Whale ¢
MARK |. tok pau TENE?

Professor of Biochemistry ww
and Molecular Biology =v 1 /*
UKE

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MP:scyjm

Enclosure