The Long Islander

MANY SCIENTISTS IN
COLD SPRING HARBOR
SUMMER SYMPOSIUM
The Biological Laboratory
Host To 130 In Resuming

Program of Conferences on
Organisms Research.

 

 

From July 2 to 12, Cold Spring
Harbor was host to 130 American
and European scientists, when the
Biological Laboratory held its sum-
mer Symposium for the first time
since 1942. In a series of continuous
and closely planned meetings, dur-
ing these eleven days, 25 papers
were presented by 27 invited scien-
tists from this country and abroad,
and general discussions on each
topic were held by the whole group.
The subject, “Heredity and Varia-
tion in Microorganisms”, was an
especially timely one, in which
rapid progress is being made and
many new scientific possibilities
opened up. Biologists, biochemists,
and bacteriologists from many re-
search laboratories eagerly discuss-
ed the recent results of their work
in this fleld as it relates to bac-
teria, viruses, fungi, and other ma-
terial being studied experimental-
ly.

This was the eleventh in the
series of Cold Spring Harbor Sym-
posia on Quantitative Biology,
which have become widely known
throughout the scientific world
since they were started in 1933. For
three years, wartime conditions
made it impossible to hold the
meetings. Therefore this first Sym-
posium since the war was of spe-
cial importance, in bringing to-
gether workers who have had lit-
tle opportunity during the last four
years to hold unlimited discussion
of their research, and who have un-
til recently been completely cut
off from the progress of research
in other countries.

The group considered the mech-
anisms that operate in the trans-
mission of heredity in the smallest
known living organisms—namely,
bacteriophages, bacteria, fungi and
protozoa. Since it is a well-estab-
lished fact that the fundamental
laws of nature apply in general to
all forms of life, it is sometimes
easier to solve a biological problem
by using simple organisms, and
later to test the validity of the
solution on more advanced organ-
isms. The discussion included also
the behavior of tumor cells and
leukemia cells, which in many re-
spects exhibit the same individ-
uality as unicellular organisms.

Some distinguished foreign scien-
tists who came to this country to

 

- July 18, 1946

take part in the program were:
Dr. N. W. Pirie, Harpenden, Eng-
land; Dr. M. J. D. White, Univer-
sity College, London; Dr. G. Ponte-
corvo, Glasgow University, Scot-
land; Dr. Andre Lwoff, Pasteur In-
stitute, Paris; Drs. Raymond Latar-
jet and Jaques Monod, of the same
Institute; Dr. Boris Ephrussi, Uni-
versity of Paris; Dr. F. Kauffmann,
State Serum Institute, Denmark;
and Dr. T. Johnson, Winnipeg, Can-
ada.

Local research workers present-
ing papers included Dr. M. Dem-
erec, director of the Biological Lab-
oratory and of the Carnegie Insti-
tution Department of Genetics; Dr.
E. C. MacDowell, staff member of
the Carnegie Institution; and Dr.
S. E. Luria, bacterlologist, of the
Carnegie Institution and Indiana
University. On leave of absence
from Indiana for the past year, Dr.
Luria has been working at the
Carnegie laboratories in charge of
a special project investigating the
development of resistance in bac-
teria to the action of penicillin,
bacteriophages, and various drugs
and antibiotics. Dr. Raymond La-
tarjet, of the Pasteur Institute,
Paris, who has also been working
at the Carnegie research center for
the past eight months, is in the
United States as a fellow of the
French Government under a pro-
gram started shortly after the end
of the war to establish internation-
al “teamwork” in science. Dr. La-
tarjet presented a paper in collab-
oration with Dr, Demerec.

The other Huropean scientists on
the program were brought to this
country by the Biological Labora-
tory especially for the purpose of
taking part in the Symposium. Al-
though this year it was possible
for only a limited number of for-
eigners to be present at the meet-
ing, it is felt that this represents
a@ good beginning in the extremely
important task of re-establishing
contact and cooperation among re-
searchers in similar fields who
have been cut off from communi-
cation by six years of war. |

American scientists attending the
Symposium came from all parts
of the country, including the states
of Alabama, California, Illinois, In- |
diana, Maryland, Missouri, Tennes-
see, Texas and Wisconsin. There
was also a large attendance from
the hospitals, universities, research
institutes, and commercial Jabora-
tories of New York City and vi-
cinity. Lecture-room space and liv-
ing accommodations limited the
number of participants, and it was
not possible to accept the regis-
trations of all who wished to at-
tend. Of the foreign scientists tak-
ing part, four each were from Can-
ada, England, and France, two were
from Chile, and one each were from

enmark and Sweden.