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AUG 23 1963

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

TALLAHASSEE

INSTITUTE FOR SPACE BIOSCIENCES 21 August 1963

Dr, Joshua Lederberg
School of Medicine
Medical Center
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

Dear Josh:

Apropos of the letter to Dr. Shneour, I would like to invite you cordially
to participate in the conference at Wakulla Springs, Florida in late October.
I hope also that you can let us know promptly.

At present, it looks very much as if Haldane will be in attendance. I
believe we do need to round out a small group of geneticists interested in
the origin of life.

I would like to take advantage of this letter to make a comment which
arises from conversations with Dick Young. Some time ago, Dick told me
that you were considering including in a culture vessel destined for Mars
some thermal proteinoid as potential nutritional substrate. If this possibility
is still in purview, it may be worth pointing out that Dr. Gottfried Krampitz
(Bonn) has learned that thermal proteinoids are attacked far more rapidly
by proteolytic enzymes if they have first been heated in aqueous solution.

In the accompanying negative print of a chromatogram of such an experiment,

the action of pepsin on thermal proteinoid is illustrated, by ninhydrin staining,
on the left. The pattern when the proteinoid is first heated in aqueous solution
at 80° for 1 minute is on the right. Controls, such as heated proteinoid with-

out pepsin being added subsequently, are in the middle.

x I |,; van

We hope very much that we can see you here in late October.
Sincerely,
Sidney W. Fox

SWE: bw

Enclosures a