Miller and Urey experiment
scientists (specifically Darwin and Oparin) believed that life originated from the early ocean, or the primordial soup
in the soup, various chemical reactions took place, which eventually produced living cells
was a good theory but didn’t hv evidence to back it up
Miller Urey experiment aimed to change this
wanted to mimic early Earth’s conditions to see what happens
also wanted to test if chemistry really can give rise to complex molecules of life
designed an apparatus to mimic or simulate the ancient water cycle
water was used to mimic the ancient ocean, and was gently boiled to mimic evaporation
gases in the atmosphere - water vapour, methane, ammonia, & hydrogen
simple gases which scientists thought were abundant in ancient Earth
added condenser to cool the water molecules
allowed the water to turn into waterdrops and return back to the ocean as rain
added sparks to atmosphere to mimic the various sources of energy that would’ve been present on ancient Earth (such as lighting storms, sunlight & geothermal heat)
after running experiment for a week - ocean became brownish-black
analysis revealed that many complex molecules had been produced, such as amino acids
scientists don’t know for sure that the gases used in the experiment, really were the most common gases in early Earth
because of this, various experiments hv been carried out that demonstrate that the molecules of life (amino acids?) can form in a variety of environments, with different starting chemicals & different sources of energy
sugars, lipids & amino acids have even been found on asteroids
suggests that the molecules of life are formed throughout the solar system
Experiment was significant for 2 reasons
demonstrated that molecules of life rlly can form under ancient-Earth like conditions
provided evidence that changed speculation, into legitimate testable science