ct, and particularly where the
literature was controversial, my results have been completely haywire.

Needless to say, I was not happy with this so I discussed it with other
graduate students. They have all encountered the _same thing_! But most
professors won't admit this to be true and merely tell me that my
technique is lousy. If anything, I am an overly careful worker. Why is
it when I _know_ what results are expected, I get comparable results
even on the _first_ trial?

Remember, _I obtained the expected results_ when the literature wasn't
confused or when my sponsor--a most important man in my life--gave me a
clue as to what kind of results to expect. _Only then._

Now this is the heart of the matter.... The obvious explanation is the
lack of experience. But, and this is what haunts me ... _what if those
so-called contradictory results are meaningful_? What if they were
executed with care--_and they were_--and are not the results of
sloppiness or inexperience? _What if a nerve can twitch?_

Very respectfully yours,

Jonathan Wells

* * * * *

May 3, 1958

Dr. Robert Von Engen,
Editor, Journal of the National Academy of Sciences,
Constitution Avenue,
Washington, D. C.

Dear Dr. Von Engen:

I would like to thank you for your encouraging letter and advice. I
agree completely with your statement that science has a long way to go
before we can explain the various inconsistencies that crop up in
research. But I certainly can't see how the letter is far too
"unsophisticated" for inclusion in the _Letters to the Editor_ portion
of your journal. While your letter should have calmed me, I feel even
more strongly now after a year of research about the matter than I did
before. I have deliberately postponed answering your letter until I had
more _facts_.

I now find that I have accumulated--as you suggested--three distinctly
conflicting groups of data on nucleic acid synthesis of frog liver
cells:

1. There is a conversion of ribonucleic acid to desoxyribonucleic acid.

2. There is a conversion of desoxyribonucleic acid to ribonucleic acid.

3. The synthesis of both types of nucleic acid are independent of each
other. (In addition, I have some data ... that I don't want to think
about too much ... that shows that there is absolutely no nucleic acid
in the liver cell.) Thus, these data all accumulated by experimental
work, support all three hypotheses. Moreover, the literatur