156 
Just seriously, what is the rush to do these experiments? We have 
several billion years of evolution behind us. Who is to say what we should 
just march in and start changing these things? 
Thank you. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Thank you. Dr. Sedat. Would you like to remain there 
at the podium? 
Are there any questions? 
Dr. Melnick? 
DR. MELNICK: I was at Yale for 20 years and used the autoclaves regu- 
larly. Do you have any evidence that any functional DNA has even come out 
of a properly autoclaved experiment? 
DR. SEDAT: I have asked people that question. Now, many people were 
in a position to either have done the experiment or know the answer, and 
the answer, as far as I can tell, is that no one knows. It is a very 
interesting experiment. 
DR. BERG: The experiment has been done. Ron Davis has done it. 
14 
DR. SEDAT: Did they start with 10 molecules as a standard? 
14 
DR. BERG: I can't tell you it starts with 10 molecules, but the 
feeling was that the DNA was utterly fragmented by the ordinary autoclaving 
procedures, circular DNA or linear DNA. 
DR. SEDAT: And they couldn't be rescued or anything? 
DR. BERG: I didn't do the experiment myself. I am just saying that 
certainly the experiment has been done, and I am sure I can document it for 
the committee and get the data if it is needed. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: We would appreciate that. Dr. Berg. 
Dr. Leder? 
DR. LEDER: With regard to the production of insulin in the intestinal 
tract, I think as every diabetic knows, much to his displeasure and discom- 
fort, it has to be injected in order to be pharmacologically effective. 
DR. SEDAT: Well, I mean, we really don't know what would happen if it 
would be produced right at the juncture of the epithelial cells. 
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