Stanley Miller`s B-DAY - local.brookings.k12.sd.us
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Transcript Stanley Miller`s B-DAY - local.brookings.k12.sd.us
March 7, 1930 - May 20, 2007
Stanley Lloyd Miller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Miller
Miller and Urey experiment (or Urey–Miller experiment)
• Simulated hypothetical conditions thought at the time
to be present on the early Earth
• tested Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's
hypothesis that conditions on the primitive Earth
favored chemical reactions that synthesized organic compounds from
inorganic precursors
• Classic experiment on the origin of life (published in 1953)
by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey at the University of Chicago
• Passed electrical discharges (simulating thunderstorms) through mixtures
of hydrogen, ammonia, methane, and water, believed to have formed the
earliest atmosphere.
• Analysis showed that organic molecules including glycine and alanine
(simple amino acids), urea, aldehydes, and carboxylic acids were produced
• After Miller's death in 2007, scientists examined the sealed vials
preserved from the original experiments & showed there were over
20 different amino acids produced in Miller's original experiments
(more than what Miller originally reported, and more than the 20 that
naturally occur in life.
• Moreover, some evidence suggests that Earth's original atmosphere
might have had a different composition than the gas used in the
Miller–Urey experiment. There is abundant evidence of major volcanic
eruptions 4 billion years ago, which would have released carbon
dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and sulfur dioxide (SO2)
into the atmosphere.
• Experiments using these gases in addition
to the ones in the original Miller–Urey
experiment have produced more diverse
molecules.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment