00 t ober 25, 1946

Dear Jaoquest

f have waited,' hoping that I would hear fr an ym first, but

apparently that is not to be. ' I have boen mean-, aotually, to write to you

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for the laat few weeks but kept putting It off, hopim that I would hear from you.

What prompts me to write at this partfaulm. momint is the faot that

I 8aw van Blel yesterday, on hie WEQT to California from primetan.
a little about the leoture that he cave et Prinoetm on ths klnetlas of
bact;trlal growth, am3 f lcnrJlR you will be pleaaed to ham tlmt he baaed it
almost entkely upon pour work.
present at tho leoture, aftor it was all over went up to van miel and told him
that he thought he had been deliver hg q nEaOnOd10ape"~ (This ls a pun. If
you don't got it , let me bow and 1'11 explafn it in my mxt letter.)

He told nre,

Ae a matter of faat, Linaum Paullng, who ~7as

The work hare has been getting on a little more rapidly in the

laot few weka than p?erianaly.  ?"?e have not nropmmd vory far in identiPging
the adaptive 8t~lntlng ar,l;ert.  Ye have found that extraaticm in the presence
of oitrate apparently give$ nore aative prepiaratione whloh 1% suggeetivo
of the possibility that it may be 8 deso~ibose~leio-aoidd-oantaininCp
oomponnd ainoe oitrate baotivates descxyribonnoleaae.
yet a vory slim lead end, poreonably to m, 8 bit disappointing sinoe it le
getting to be rather monotonous to find blolo~kml aativity OOnaQntratt3d in
thio fraotian.  Om othw thing of intereat.  iile have attemptad to test tho
thoorg that I pwpoaed at  tFo Cold SyrLag mrbor Symgoslum bg trying to adapt a
oell to an enzyme whhh it oould not urn4  So far 8~p the thoory le aonaerned,
it ahould not make any diffescpnae Whethsr the enzyme was aotually bslre used  or
not , the onls oritorion being that 8om oorablmt lcn of mayme ad aubstrate take
plaoe.  ;Je have gotten an apparently oloar-azt &np3wsr in tho oase of maltose
adaptation.  hs yota know, rnsltose 18 not formented by ;yoat at pH 7.2 and abovee
Va found, homver, that the empe omld be formed at that pH. '\Ye ale now
iSt!Rcartlgatlng thles more thoroughly, attempti= to find In partio:zlar how mmh
substrate was oopdbined with enqme at tho higher pH.

This, of oourse, Is a8

     Ve have also repeated yw-r experirnonts, mlng yeast,  on the effeot
ocfp inoreaaing maltose oenaontratirns m t?M rate of adaptat1 zb Exoeyt 'or a
difforenas in the rams of the effoctivo aownntratiom, our reeults are quite
iaontlual.  Ye are trying to exxmine this entire phenomnon fairly aareFully at
dii'forent pH88 ln vim 02 the faot that :ye have found that the, opthl
oonoentration for nru~lmal fermentat im rats of maltose shifte i-tith pII3 for
example, at pH 4.5 it is 1.5,$maltose mereas at pH 6.5 it has ehlfted to 4%
malt oseo

Zell, eo moh for aotual laboratory do1q;s.

1[ have not a8 yet

finishod 'ig review but atill intend to send It to you a8 oouin 88 it le done.
Affairs at the University were quite oompliouted polltioally Srhen I roturnad,
aad I apsnt a good deal of time trying to straighten thin@ aut here.
now in a rolatively satiafaotorg state.
Lhx~egrene to acimbhe intoreeta orroe :i.ore Ath us in view of the faot that
I need PI lot of genotioally negative strains to test our wtransforming" aubatariae,
an3 he haa agreed to oollaborate with our grow un t kis problem

                  They are
I have also boon attentptlng to get the

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I ram going next woe to hshington to attend a hlgh+mered

oonferenae vihiah has a vary peoulinr origin.
arlhioh inolUde8 BO&, Einstein, Fermi, van Beumsnn, SOhrodinger, and quite a
fm others, have deoIded to turn their attention to biolow and they, thsrefow,
arranged khls omfemnoe to t!ioh they invited abmt 8iX biologists, including

biologists apparently 1s to give a highly oowlensod aoaamt of what is Zoing
on ln modern bioloq, 80 88 to bring ow physical oolleaggaea up to date,
don't have mQh hopes that *$a muah Of QJ~ Orii;.iu&l nature Will arise frcm
tho oonfereme but it should be interesting ln any (3888. major purpoae
in aaoagtiw mas to see 80 mqy high-pwerad brains all oolleated in one room
and presumab'ly thinkim about the sglm things.

Som of the topmost phagsiaists,

Beadle, Ihfller, Cori, ~WIf, and abozlt tWO 0th~~. The PUrpOSe Of $he

I

4 will mita you the maults  of this intomating expri:wnt if

aqrthing of fntn?soat corns wt of it.

Please romembsr to qlve my re9arda to AnBxlew and Boris should yau

Say hello to him for m ala0 and tell hi7* that  I have been
             John Reinec, who ia standing right beaide

me him,
laboratory.
havlw a very good time :rith ~ib.
me, also smde regards.

I wderstazd that Rrmhet ie at ths Imtftute Im Rngkinea'

Tell Boris that I inten8 rnrit1t-g hfm in the near futwe,  if not

sooner.

See you. in P ria next 8~~men"~ I hope.

Youre,

Sol Splegelnrsn

Depm tmont of Bacteriology
Vashin$i on lfgivoraity
3t. Lauis, :lo.