Miller–Urey Experiment

Also called

Miller Urey experiment · Stanley Miller · origin of life · chemical evolution · abiogenesis · primordial soup · Oparin Haldane theory · early atmosphere · methane ammonia hydrogen · electric discharge · amino acids formed · spark discharge apparatus · coacervate · protocell · मिलर का प्रयोग · जीवन की उत्पत्ति · रासायनिक विकास

Topics

• Oparin and Haldane proposed that life arose from non-living organic molecules: chemical evolution.
• The early atmosphere was reducing (CH₄, NH₃, H₂, water vapour) with no free oxygen; lightning and UV gave energy.
• In 1953 Stanley Miller sealed CH₄, NH₃, H₂ and water in glass and passed electric sparks through them.
• Boiling water supplied vapour, the sparks acted as lightning, and a condenser rained the products back down.
• Within a week the water turned red-brown, and it contained amino acids such as glycine and alanine.
• Simple organic molecules could therefore form without life, as the theory of chemical evolution predicted.
• Oparin–Haldane: such molecules gathered in the warm early seas as a hot dilute soup.
• There they could join into polymers and be enclosed in membrane-bound droplets, the first protocells.

About this model

A GLB file of about 814 KB, shown in Lably's 3D viewer and, on a phone, placed in your room with AR. Credit: Model, science and animation: Lably (built procedurally with three.js; no downloaded meshes). | CC BY 4.0. Original geometry and animation made for Lably.

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