223 
September 28, 1972 
Dr. Robert Huebner 
Chief, Viral Carcinogenesis Branch 
National Cancer Institute 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Huebner: 
The R/V Alpha Helix is a floating laboratory facility having an unequaled 
capability for the support of expeditionary biological research. 
Purposes of this letter are to better acquaint you with this laboratory 
ship and its research program, and to stimulate you to imaginatively consider 
the possible utilization of this scientific facility for first-hand 
investigations of biological problems of your interest. 
The facilities of the Alpha Helix provide a scientific support capacity 
which permits one to carry on technical experimental research in all of the 
regions of the earth that are covered or approached by water. The laboratories 
of the ship are especially outfitted for each research effort, and sophisticated 
instrumentation (even including a Zeiss electron microscope) has been 
successfully used aboard ship. Further, any competent land-based scientist can 
quickly function nearly as effectively in the ship's laboratories as in his own. 
The essential difference between his home laboratory and those of the Alpha 
Helix is that those of the ship are mobile. 
The ship and its supporting laboratories provide a particularly conducive 
environment where 12-member scientific teams, often of international and 
interdisciplinary character, are assembled for the concentrated practice of 
science, as the participants work and live together over a number of weeks. Six 
years of Alpha Helix programs have demonstrated that, under these conditions, 
scientific productivities are unusually high and that the total individual and 
group experiences are uniquely rewarding. 
A greater appreciation of the essence and the variety of research 
activities supported by the Alpha Helix over the years can be gained from the 
enclosed booklets. The one entitled " Alpha Helix Research Program: 1969-1970" 
briefly recounts research efforts prior to 1969 by chronicling the expeditions 
and by listing the titles of the field reports and the resulting publications. 
Each research program of 1969 and 1970 is prefaced by a general account of the 
work and is followed by the abstracted field reports of the scientific 
investigations. The programs of last year are presented in a similar format in 
the booklet " Alpha Helix Research Program: 1971". 
The most recent updating and projecting of the scientific program of the 
Alpha Helix appears below. 
Research 
Locale 
Chief Scientist 
Institution 
Anthropology of 
Natives 
Solomons 
A Damon, MD 
Harvard U. 
Native health & 
disease 
Solomons 
& Hebrides 
C. Gajdusek MD 
N.I.H. 
