FOCOCSOOOCOOGOIR,
JOO OWOOCK

Department of Medical Genetics

May 8, 1.957

Mr. Dennis Blanagan
Selentific American
415 Madison Avenues
Kew York 7, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Blanagan:
Thank you for your letter of May 64.

You have an interesting proposal, and one I would like to think more
about. If I were not rather busy with other writing commitments, with |
some adninistrative duties, and with a trip to Australia coming (August 1-
Hovember 15) I would bs lees cautious. However, if it were possible to
proceed without a fixed deadline, we might go ahead.

However, I must say that the Hctohkies-Wetes article did not seem te m
among the beat of ite genre in your magasine, or the best that could be done
with that kind of subject. Perhaps you have a lowerg but morerealastic esti-
mate of your public's ability to assimilate genmtis’ concepts in more abstract
terms. I am quite pr to admit that my own ms. on a related topic
(Genetic Transduction) erred in the opposite direction, and I would hope there
ds a happy man. But I suppose that genetics is almost certain to be one of
the amore diffiouit areas to popularise, since our conclusions rest on such ©
an extended chain of inferences. It turned out that my writing that article
at least towards, if not succesafully for, the Sclentific Amrioan was a
happy mistake, bg helping it find a most suitable home in the American
Seientist which is presumably a mre sophisticated vehicle. A copy is
enclosed for your interest.

For some of these reasons, and also because the subject has been rather
thoroughly anticipated, I do not think it would be wise to go ahead with
another article on bacterial-ganetic recombination. In ite place, I would
mention that I have heen spending some time lately on another (distantly

Telatei) topic role bac fal a in thei: behav and
ated) topic, the Bi mee ser " oe ares have been ono sours but

cycles. a

provocative & lpoktet that many bacteriologists have wanted not even to think
about, for lack of any rational approach to them. Many workers have ascribed
an almost mystical sighifioance to L-forms as part of the ligfe-cycle of
bacteria, even as representing the possible inter—transformability of bacteria
into rickettela and viruses. Cur wan work, based on that of many others, now
helps to rationaldse the subject, insof@ as the "L-forms" appear to be

the kinl of growth form which bacteria oan assume af they are deprived of ...
their rigid walle. They can be so deprived either by external inhibition, or
by an internal metabolic block pf genetie origin. Indeed, the mechanhem of
6 32> B36
cv 9b

action of penicillin has been elucidated by this group of studies as pre-
cisely the inhibition of bacterial wall synthesis, the unique therapeutic
specificity of this antibioticathus resting on the unique chemical makeup
of the bacterial cell walls, which has no counterpart in the mammalian
cell.

We have published only a couple of preliminary notes on this subject,
which I am sending. Some time before we leave for Australia, I hope to
have done a mere comprehensive as. In connection with that, I hope to be able
to send you a draft of a paper for S.A. But if that doesn't work out, then —
I'll send the technisal paper for Mise Weiss to redo. In any case, I would
not want the S.A. article to appear in print before our technical contribution.

ares
It seams to wm this topic should lend itself far better than more abstract
gemticsa far S.A. It has a definite but not too prolonged a history, the
problem can be stated in rather concrete terms, and above all both the prob-
lem and evidence to ite situation can be given photographically, o.g., ina
sequence of photomicrographs that shows the evolution of a protoplast from a
growing call treated with penicillin.

Meanwhile, Miss Weiss might look over the enclosures, ani some indicated
references, and advise you and m on the suitability of the topic. The references
are wrlerlined in red pencil on the reprints.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Profeseor of Medical Genetics