Related to the prebiotic synthesis, (a) What experiment did Stanley Miller perform in 1953? (b) What was his hypothesis? (c) What were his results? (d) In what way do these results contribute to our understanding of the origin of life?

1 Answer
Oct 11, 2015

Miller wanted to show how life may have first started.

Explanation:

a) Miller did this by sending an electric charge into a solution made of methane, hydrogen, ammonia and water.

b) Miller said that the ingredients of life were on the very early Earth.

c) The results that he obtained were a mixture that contained around 9 amino acids, 2% were of the simplest, glycine and alanine, and traces of 7 others.

d) We are not sure how life began yet.
Creationist disagree that life could have begun this way. Mainly because the amino acids found were right handed. The ones found in life here on Earth are left handed except for a few.

But I think that the Murchison meteorite may have the answers.

Dr. George Cooper from the NASA Research Center found sugar and several related organic compounds in the Murchison meteorite.
They also found amino acids that are left handed and they also found amino acids that are not found here on Earth.