August 16, 1965

Mr. G. A. Derbyshire

Space Science Board
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20418

Dear George:

I am enclosing some material that I would appreciate your bringing to
the attention of Harry Hess in connection with his possible testimony
before Senate Committees, Mr. Coleman had called me about this.

I would particularly point out the small memorandum labelled "ABL-
Automated Biological Laboratory" which presents a position somehwat
more vehement than the one that was formally adopted by the Summer Study
last year. However, I hope that the force of the argument on the first
page still appears in the Committee report also. Because it is rather
vehement, I would prefer that this not be available for publication in
its present form,

I am also enclosing a letter To The Editor which you may have seen in
the form of a news story by Walter Sullivan in the New York Times a few
days ago. While I suppose I should be grateful,to Sullivan for giving
this point of view the wider play that it received by being on the news
wire, I still would rather he had left it in the form I intended, namely,
as a letter To The Eddtor in response to the editorial which The Times
had written earlier. I suppose it is no accident that Sullivan's story
makes no reference to the implied criticism ef the editorial which was
the underlining motive for my letter. However, I can really hardly
complain about the accuracy with which his story presented my views, I
think it was really very unfortunate that there should have been such a
hasty appraisal of the significance of the craters on Mars since it will
undoubtedly lead to a gross distortion of the picture. The issue surely
is not humanoids versus no life at all.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

Enclosure