Question

The Miller-Urey abiotic synthesis experiment (and other subsequent, similar experiments) shows that:
A. simple organic molecules can form spontaneously under conditions like those thought to prevail early in the earth's history.
B. The earliest life forms introduced large amounts of oxygen to the atmosphere.
C. Life can be created in a test tube.
D. Long chains of DNA can form under abiotic conditions.

Answer 1

Hint: Stanley L. Muller and Harold C. Urey carried out an experiment to define the origin of life on earth. They were of the idea that the early earth’s atmosphere could produce amino acids from inorganic matter. The two biologists took advantage of water, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen, which they considered were noticed in the early earth’s atmosphere.

Complete step-by-step answer:
In 1952, Stanley Miller, then a graduate student at the University of Chicago, approached Harold Urey about making an experiment to examine the possibility that organic chemicals important for the origin of life may have formed organically on the early Earth. The experiment was carried out using a custom-built glass apparatus created in order to simulate the early earth. Miller's research simulated lightning through the action of an electric discharge on a mixture of gases that represent the early atmosphere, in the presence of a liquid water container, which represents the early oceans.
The apparatus is also used to simulate precipitation and evaporation using a condenser and a heating mantle, respectively. Specific information about the apparatus Miller used can be found anywhere else. After a week of sparking, the contents in the flask were noticeably transformed. The water became a turbid, reddish colour, and yellow-brown material gathered in electrodes. This ground-breaking work is thought to be the first intentional, and effective synthesis of biomolecules under virtual early Earth conditions.

Therefore the correct answer is Option A.

Note: The exact nature of the origins of life on Earth continues to be one of the most mysterious scientific problems. In the 1920s Russian biologist Alexander Oparin and British evolutionary biologist and geneticist John Haldane proposed the idea of a "primordial soup", which describes the primitive terrestrial oceans that contain organic mixtures that may have facilitated chemical evolution. Though, it was not until the 1950s when chemists started to carry out premeditated laboratory research to understand how organic molecules could be synthesised from simple source materials on the early Earth.