AUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

   

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND EN
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

November 9,

 

Dr. J. Lederberg
Genetics Department
Stanford University
Stanford, California

Dear Lederberg:

T have looked through the two papers by Carl Sagan in the
Westex report. The first one on the moon seems to me to be very
bad indeed. How a young man can possibly waste his time by
writing such a paper I do not know, and I certainly do not think
that the National Academy of Sciences Space Board should publish
it. All the conclusions he puts in the paper could have been
condensed into a paragraph, namely living organisms exposed on
the surface of the moon would die in a couple of hours and living
organisms buried well below the surface might exist for very long
periods of time; also, there may be carbon compounds on the moon
produced by photochemical decomposition of some early carbonaceous
atmosphere.

I do not believe his theory of the origin of the solar system
at all. I believe it was based on false arguments, that there
never has been the slightest bit of evidence advanced in support
of it, but no mention of any theory for the origin of the moon is
required in order to reach the many possible conclusions that can
be drawn.

The paper on Venus is fairly good. There are a number of
points in this that I had overlooked myself and in this case we
do have enough evidence to make it worthwhile to discuss it. I
still think it could be written in much smaller space.

I knew Carl Sagan at Chicago briefly. He came to my office
a couple of times with ideas about the origin of life on the
planets. I was not much interested in what he had to say, and
I have not been interested mich since. I much prefer a young man
like Stanley Miller who gets some experiments done instead of
talking about them. Sagan's paper on the moon is completely in
accord with that impression I had some years ago. His paper on
Venus gives me somewhat the contrary view. I am quite sure that
the first one would not be accepted for publication in any reason-
able, well-run scientific journal. Perhaps the second one would.

Very sincerely,
Math C

Harold C. Urey

Cw: Jn aiardigoharse