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Department of Genetics

February 16, 1959

Dr. William M. Sinton
Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff, Arizona

Dear Dr. Sinton:

A group of microblologists, including myself, are meeting informally
next week to discuss some problems of the biological explorations
of the planets. Your observations of the 3.46 uw banned from

Mars are of courseunlquely important for our discussion. | would

be grateful to you for reprints for your publications on planetary
surfaces and for any further somment you might care to make on the
significance -. this finding.

May | also ask your advice on a possible related point’
We are concerned with the danger of contamination of the planetary
surface by material that might be carried along with any probe.
For this reason [t would be desirable to extract as much informa-
tion as possible by means of a circum-planetary satellite before
programming a landi:g . Can you suggest how much more information
might be obtained by the application of your methods from such a
device operated, say, as an earth satellite , or as a Martian
satellite.? That Is, would you feel that enough additional information
over that presently available could be obtained from satellites to
warrant interpolating these experiments in the program prior to
landing. .

To take a related topic, do you belfeve that your methods might
furnish more decisive infor .’"on on the incidence of gaseous and

organic materfal on the surface of the moon in the light of Koryzef's
recent claims with respect to volcanic activity there?

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Joshua Lederbe -
Professor of Genetics

JL Vjr