Question

Describe the Miller and Urey experiment on the origin of life.

Answer 1

Hint: From this experiment, it has been clear at least some of life's building blocks may have evolved abiotically on early Earth. Some chemicals used in the experiment were the simplest hydrocarbon and a colorless gas consisting of atoms of nitrogen and hydrogen.

Complete answer:

- To explain the origin of life on earth, Stanley L. Muller and Harold C. Urey conducted an experiment. They had the belief that the atmosphere of the earth was capable of extracting amino acids from inorganic matter. In the early earth's atmosphere, the two biologists used methane, water, hydrogen, and ammonia, which they thought to have been discovered. 

- Inside sterile glass tubes, the chemicals were sealed and flasks attached together in a loop and circulated inside the apparatus. One flask is half-filled with water and a pair of electrodes is used in the other flask. The water vapor has been heated and the released vapor has been applied to the chemical mixture. The emitted gases dispersed throughout the apparatus, mimicking the atmosphere of the earth. The water in the flask reflects the water on the surface of the planet, and the water vapor is much like the water that evaporates from the seas and lakes. To ignite the fire, the electrodes were used to mimic lightning and storm by water vapor.

It cooled the vapors and condensed the water. In a continuous cycle, this condensed water trickles back into the first water container. After a week, Miller and Urey analyzed the cooled water and noticed that 10-15 percent of the carbon was in the form of organic compounds. 13 amino acids were produced by 2 percent of carbon.

Note: In a 1996 interview, after his original work, Stanley Miller remembered his lifelong experiments and stated: Just turning on the spark will produce 11 of 20 amino acids in a simple prebiotic experiment. The initial experiment remained under the care of former student Jeffrey Bada of Miller and Urey, a professor at the UCSD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in 2017. The equipment used to perform the experiment was on display at the Nature and Science Museum in Denver as of 2013.