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Concept
Miller–Urey experiment
Summary
The Miller–Urey experiment (or Miller experiment) was a chemistry experiment carried out in 1952 that simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present in the atmosphere of the early, prebiotic Earth, in order to test the hypothesis of the chemical origin of life under those conditions. The experiment used water (H2O), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2), and an electric arc (the latter simulating hypothesized lightning). CH4, NH3, H2 were taken in the ratio 2:2:1.
At the time, it supported Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's hypothesis that the hypothesized conditions on the primitive Earth favored chemical reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors. It is regarded as a groundbreaking experiment, and the classic experiment investigating abiogenesis. It was performed in 1952 by Stanley Miller, supervised by Harold Urey at the University of Chicago, and published the following year.
After Miller's death in 2007, scientists examining sealed vials preserved from the original experiments were able to show that there were actually well over 20 different amino acids produced in Miller's original experiments. That is considerably more than what Miller originally reported, and more than the 20 that naturally occur in the genetic code. More recent evidence suggests that Earth's original atmosphere might have had a composition different from the gas used in the Miller experiment, but prebiotic experiments continue to produce racemic mixtures of simple-to-complex compounds—such as cyanide—under varying conditions.
Methane (CH4), water (H2O), ammonia (NH3), and hydrogen (H2) were all sealed together in the ratio 2:2:1 (1 part H2) inside a sterile 5-liter glass flask connected to a 500 ml flask half-full of water. The water in the smaller flask was heated slightly to induce evaporation, and the water vapor was allowed to enter the larger flask. A continuous electrical spark was discharged between a pair of electrodes in the larger flask.
Official source
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