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(EDITORS: Dr. Lederberg will discuss "exobiology" at a special press conference at
Stanford Medical School at 4 p.m. on the day of his lecture, May 3, in the faculty
room adjoining the dean's office. Enclosed map will assist your reporter and/or
photographer. )

Is there life on other planets?

A Stanford University Medical School biologist thinks there might be, and is
studying the types of microscopes and other devices that might be placed on Mars to
find out.

Dr. Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Prize co-winner for his genetic studies, will discuss
"exobiology"--his own term for extra-terrestrial life, at a public lecture at the
University on Tuesday. His talk, "Biology of the Planets," begins at 73:30 p.m. in
Dinkelspiel Auditorium. It is a Tuesday Evening Series presentation.

Dr. Lederberg put forward his views of “exobiology" in a paper delivered in Nice,
France, on January 12 at the first annual Space Science Symposium sponsored by
"COSPAR"=-the international Committee on Space Research.

In his paper, Dr. Lederberg. noted that Mars and Venus are primary targets for
this type of space science research because of the possible presence of a temperate
layer which might support biological life.

Earth plants, animals, and bacteria share a remarkable list of biochemical
components hidden in the nucleic acids, and it now takes an alert scientist to
distinguish an "hydrolysate of yeast cells from beef muscle, for instance." ;

Therefore, he asks, if extra-terrestrial life exists, does it also depend on the
nucleic acids and the proteins, like our own?

One possible answer would be to plant ultra-violet microscopes on Mars in an area
that appeared unusually rich in organic material. Pictures from a revolving strip of
transparent tape which would carry samples past the microscope's aperture could be
transmitted to earth by television for scientific scrutiny.

It is also possible, he cautions, that when we achieve space flight, we may well
transfer bacterial life from the earth to other planets. This could be “followed by
the explosive growth of the implant with consequences of even geochemical scope.”

Dr. Lederberg was educated at Columbia and Yale. His major research interests
are in the genetics of microorganisms, of which the study of evolution of micro-
organisms on other planets is an extension. He is a member of the Space Science Board
of the National Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected in 1957.

In the following year he shared the Nobel Prize with Professors George Beadle of
Caltech and Edward L. Tatum of the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Both are former
Stanford faculty members. HHH 4/26/60