Editorial Off ice
Archives of Biochemistry etc.
125 E";ast 23 Street

New York 10, N.Y.

Ocntl8mn:                            1

I will not be displeased to review iaamuwipb sent without prior
cmnaultation, but you run the risk, a8 in the present case od som8
delay before I can ctonvenisntly mmage the revierJ.

The preaent m. (Horowita) is ahort emmgh that ths question of
condensation does not seem mry pressing. The technique for isolating
mutants is given in full ti ref8rence 17, md perhaps need not be
recited on pages k-5. The fi&&. paragraph, page 11, ier vamous and the
author could afford to o&t it altogether, Most of the references &ted
in the first paragraph, page 1, are of doubtful immdiate partinmce.

I am snclosingnsom additional crommnts direatsda&o the author.

Tho paper aa a whole fs not below the usaal stmdwds of the jourml.,
and contains sufficient original fmterial to justify itu acc@ance.
I cannot suggest another, more appropriate journal for it.

If the book has not already been mmigned, I would welccma the oppor-
tunity to review .~vancee in &metius,..~~~olw 5./
                                             
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             yL       Youra sincsrely,

Joshua L8dsrberg
Associate Profeseror of Wmtica


  UXOWIZ: UV etc. on B. subtilis
* p.3 spores desiccated over what agent?

0

p.3-4 calibration of optical density assms uniform or t&al viability. Was this
    justified?

p. 4 significant Parameter I3 percent of mutants (not mutation) amoo survivors.

P* 5  Why is 2-tar&t curve the ~~theo~~tical~~, deviations from which have been explained?
  What is the theory? Reference to Atwood or others for target theory would be
  appropriate.

p. 7 Confusion between function and equation, not entirely cleared up. Figure II
  should show log (M/N- Ma/N ), and not the natural numbers on a logarithmic
  scale to concord with line"7. The smooth line curve represents the function,
  log &x platted against logx. The points represent log(..) plotted against
  log x. It would be much clearer if these functions were plotted in natural
  coordinates (invLlvi.ng only a change on the legends).

P*8  The rawqdata would be better replaced by means and dispersions.

Discussion pp. 9-U..

The consladeration of absorption and lethal action spectra tire unobjcc$fcr,able.
The numbars of ratants isr;lated are, however, so small as tz leave the cvaluaticn of
mutation con&nts open to very severe criticism on statistical grounds. I.6sns--+&Wi
#N This is already obvious from the inherhal heterogeneity of
in table 3, ('his table wo&ld be much more meaningful if arranged by waveLsr&h).     2
gv If one omits the high values for 23OlA, it pay be zondercd if a
proper heterogeneity test on all the remaining data would disclose any evidence for
any difference whatsoever in the production of mutants as a function of wavelength,, and
perhaps not even as a function of dose.

It may also be questioned F;hat is being measured by the tech?r.ique used (see D&s,
Experientia, 6:42; Kitkin, Cold Spr. Harbor Symposium i6). Bacterial spores may Possibly
be free from such problems of nuclear segregation etc., but this has not been substan-
tially proven.
contaminants'?  Were the mutants L!l charzcterizod adequzC,oly to ensure they xere not

Figure 1.  Dose 0 on abcissa.

'Lable III. Khere is B phot pro
             (  mised on p.8). Relative intensity units through are

units of what:-- incident energy flux?  7%~ phototube aUibr.abC for wavelength?

Table I 'l+- standard deviation? The raw data need hardly be gtven if this is
  correctly presented.