September 25, 1961

Mr. G.A. Derbyshire

Space Sclence Board

National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington 25, D.C.

Dear George:

By chance ! had an opportunity to see Academician Sisakyian yesterday
In the course of his tour following the conferences at Stowe, Vermont. We
exchanged oolite regrets concerning the poor attendance of American sclentIsts
at the exobiology discussion in Moscow last month and the reasons for this.
! stressed the desirability of some further discussions along these lines,
but after more careful preparation and with a minimum of two months notice
after specific arrangements had been worked out. | Indicated thet for my
pert and In expectation of my colleagues that we could meet essentially any-
where and at any time that would be of useful effect provided that we could
have this advanced notice. |! now feel that it would not be advisable to
join this kind of Informal discussion to another large meeting, or to the
COSPAR session as this would only exaggerate the organizational problems and
the political Implications of the meeting. In any cese the majority of the
people directly Involved In this area would not be esvecially interested In
COSFAR business otherwise. One suggestion that might be worth considering
is to ask that the meeting be held elsewhere In Europe but at a time that
would be conveniently apposed to the Planetary Astrophysics Colloqlum In
Liege, next July. Sisakylan seemed to be reasonably congenial to these proposals
in principle, and | left stressing that the next move would be up to him to
make @ response to these suggestions. 1! will write to him In a few days to
remind him of these conversations and again to ask for a definite response.

| also had a very good time with Igor Tamm, whom I've met before, and
who Is | think much more friendly to the spirit of International scientific
cooperation. Tamm also suggests that such discussions be held on a very Informal
basis, but with definite planning and apart from any other organ! zat!ona!
arrangements. Incidently, the Pugwash serles of conferences has been a great
success for these reasons, while even COSPAR has become a quite political
enterprise.

Sisakylan expressed an Interest In seeing the volume Sclence in Space
and | hope you can do the good turn of sending him one as | promised would be
done.

| am calling a meeting of the exobliology committee to be held In the
Faculty Room, Dean's Office, here on Saturday, October 28. This will be a
technical session to review some of the now more explicit plans for blological
experiments on the Mariner B and Voyager miss!ons. The various people at NASA
Mr. G.A. Derbyshire 2 September 25, 1961

ere quite anxious to have this kind of supporting advice, and are not yet quite
prepared to take over the consultation work within thelr own framework, so |
think we can kill two birds with one stone. | will be sending out formal

Invitations to the usual membership of Committee 14, and the ex officio members
from the related committees within e couple of days. 1 leave It to you
whether it will be particularly worth your ow time and effort to attend. 1
plan to ba In Washington on October & and wil! call you to find out If there

is anything current that might be more conveniently discussed at closer hand.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics