NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
A STATUTORY COLLEGE OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY

CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, N. ¥. 14850

DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY
BRADFIELD AND EMERSON HALLS

July 18, 1969

Prof. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine

Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Josh:

Many thanks for the copy of your letter to the New York Times.
Needless to say, I disagree on some of the points raised in your letter and
also in the item for the Washington Post. However, at this late date,
unquestionably there is nothing to be done, either in regard to quarantine
for Apollo II or to cancellation of the program of manned exploration of
the lunar surface. Nevertheless, I believe that the noise that was made
about the inadequacy, which I strongly believe is the case, of the LRL
quarantine hopefully will serve a useful purpose, namely in designing a
sensible Martian quarantine. In this regard, we are in complete agreement.
This is not too soon to begin the necessary research and program formulation

in order that an adaquate quarantine will be instituted for manned vehicles
to Mars.

Having been drawn into the area at a late date, I must admit that I
have become most interested. I wish only that more microbiologists would
become directly involved, particularly individuals who have competence in
environmental microbiology.

Kindest regards.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Alexander
Professor

Soil Microbiology

MA/je