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are typically diverse. The normal structure of science, especially 

 university science, is disciplinary. Unlike the mission-oriented inter- 

 disciplinary teams of NASA, scientific experiment tends to be 

 discipline-bound. A journal on the Origin of Life is exceptional since 

 it centers on a large question, not at all typical of the journals in 

 which most work must be published. 



We believe it urgent that some effort be exerted to strengthen 

 the interdisciplinary nature of this work, which we have character- 

 ized as seeking the answer to a large question, not merely working 

 out the answers to many small questions, though that is, of course, 

 the indispensable path to most progress. 



To this end we offer two recommendations, based on discussion 

 and experience within this widely interdisciplinary workshop: 



1. There is no way to make continued progress unless young, 

 talented research workers are steadily recruited to the work. But in 

 the absence of a well-established discipline, young people are much 

 more likely to seek surer and easier paths. A direct incentive should 

 be provided, an incentive which would enlarge the opportunities for 

 young people who wished to undertake some portion of this great 

 question as their own work. 



We recommend that some funding agency — a joint effort of 

 several, whether Federal or private — undertake to offer a yearly 

 grant of some post-doctoral Fellowships in the Origin of Life. They 

 should be grants for 2 or 3 years, perhaps, tenable at any place which 

 has agreed to accept the person. Possibly, the grant should include 

 not only a reasonable sum for salary and travel, but also some addi- 

 tional funds to encourage the host laboratory to accept the Fellow. 

 The scale of the grants would of course depend on funds available; a 

 substantial effect could be achieved by the U.S.A. by grants say to 

 10 persons a year, as a steady-state number. The competition should 

 be open to research people from any discipline and any country; the 

 only requirement would be a showing of the relevance and hope of 

 the study for progress towards a knowledge of the origins of life. 



It would be most appropriate to call these Fellowships by the 

 name of the late Harold Urey; he was the remarkable American scien- 

 tist who as much as any other man has opened the field to modern 

 study. Perhaps that name would open some new sources of funding; 



