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February 25, 1959

Dear Bill:

| hope you are enjoying your Insular visit as much as you deserve or better,
} trust what | am going to suggest in this letter won't diminish that enjoyment,

Petterson (ref. In enclosure) has made some Interesting observations on the
Ni content of air filtered from high altitude stations at Mauna Loa. The Hawaiians
offer mux obvious advantages for a variety sf studies of phenomena at moderate
altitudes relatively safe from contamination from ground dust, etc. It occurred
to me that it might be well worth while to make careful microbiological surveys
of similar samples, and that this might be fun for someone like yourself, Amony
other things, such a survey would help to test the presumed cleanliness of the
air at the altitude of these collections, They also nave some bearing on the
possibility of transport of spores (at low density) to very high altitudes.
Perhaps the XK&XMK literature already contains enough relevant data-- Roger
Stanier promises to look into this, though It may Rax not have been sucii a
popular exercise since Pasteur's time. if not, where would it be more fun to
do?

Neture, K&KKX Jan. 31 1959 has a paper on 'nitoogen in New Zealand snows! ic!)
that may not be unrelated-- viz. some ofthis nitrogen might be of meteoritic (or volcan
origin, though Is proposition of oceanic provenance Is not unreasonable. One
should have wanted some Na, Cl analyses to check this point. Anyhow this
does suggest the suitability of high altitude snowfalls from a site like
Hawall for parallel Investigations on microblal, N, Na, Ni content. I'm not
golng to cook the meal but just try to whet your appetite. (Of course
this survey should be matched by a corresponding one In the high Alps and
Rockies to check to role of nearby oceans!) a

If you think anyone of this might be fun during your visit, | suggest you
contact Newton Morton whose brother-in-law is a meteorologist who does some
vork on Mauna Loa (Colby Foss.) Petterson also refers (see encl.) to Professor,
Steiger, perhaps even more aptly. (Don't take too serjously the imputed hypo-
thesis of collectionn of meteoritic mm microbes, )

“s 2770hC

Enjoy yourself-- and let's hear from you. Do visit us {tf you pass through
SFO on your way home, Our phone Is (lab) DA-3-2441, or (home) DA-3-3816.

Best wishes,

t Joshua Lederberg
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