In 1953, taking their cue from Oparin and Haldane, the chemists
Stanley L. Miller and
Harold C. Urey carried out an experiment on the "primeval soup". Within two weeks a
racemic mixture of a few amino acids, some of the building blocks of life, had formed from the highly
reduced mixture of
methane,
ammonia, water vapor and
hydrogen. While Miller and Urey did not actually create life, they demonstrated that a more complex molecule a few amino-acids could emerge spontaneously from simpler chemicals. The environment was meant to simulate a primeval earth. It included an external energy source and an atmosphere largely devoid of oxygen. (the specific experiment involved shooting a spark, representing lightning, into their flask) There was careful filtering in place to preserve the results from destruction.
Here's something interesting that I just thought of while reading that excerpt from Wikipedia...
For starters, we have a primoridal "soup", devoid of atmospheric oxygen, containing just a few basic elemental gases, which includes water vapor (containing oxygen) - without water vapor we couldn't get an electrical reaction or discharge. At first I thought, we dont get lightning on other planets, until I thought of Jupiter. So, it seems possible as long as water vapor is present. I wonder if any form of life has arisen there? Just a curious thought, and something to examine if we ever get that far out in space, because theorectially there should be some form of life.
With the introduction of electricty, on the magnitude of simulated lightning we get some basic amino acids. Possibly the same kind each instance (same conditions, elements, etc.,. same result) - only one or two types were formed. This isn't nearly enough to bring about the potential beginnings of a major explosion of life. It seems to show how elements react under a given condition, like Na and Cl can form salt, but doesn't quite represent enough to conclude itself as a "beginning of life".
We need to diversify the "soup" or conditions over time to get others (amino acids), in order to form a more complex chain. Since each amino acid should, theoretically, have a given span of time to remain active (otherwise dino dna would still be good to this day), It might not survive a transition of time (or environment wise) into the new condition that produces the third or fourth kind - now we have the next couple, we've just lost the first two. Also, we have to assume that just by chance, not only did all the "elements" come together to form a "beginning", but that all types were being formed in the proper (exact) order to combine effectively into a primordial genesis cell, that would not only have the ability to replicate in an ever changing hostile environment, but to take advantage of every change, evolving and adding to a single entity that all of a sudden, split out all over the place. Statistically, that would be way off the chart. Still reading though ... I saw Haldane's name mentioned
Gotta to head out again.
Be back in a bit ...
-----
Mike.
