Origin of life found from 50-year-old samples

Read more:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn14966?DCMP=youtube

Researchers revisit Stanley Miller's famous spark experiments from the 1950s and find some new results.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Stanley
• Miller
• spark
• experiment
• origin
• life
• new
• scientist
• newscientist

[Katalyzt]

It is good to know that people are continually attempting to verify previous discoveries. The scientific method is great. :O)

Katalyzt

[MumblingMickey]

@TheTwistedGypsy

Chemistry is based on the principle that different chemicals have different properties.

One of the properties of organic compounds is that they do form complex structures readily. Its called organic synthesis and polymers forming from those is called polymerization. This has been understood since the 1830's, long before Miller.

Before insisting these things are impossible when you can demonstrate it to yourself on your kitchen table look it up!

You get a fat 'F'!

[H0B0J03]

you can synthesize lifeforms, but you cant make a soul...

...you'll need to trap one first.

the elder scrolls taught us this.

[NorthForkFisherman]

@FarhanC99 It was never about creating life. Damn it. I hate hearing that. (not yelling at you, just the common misconception) It was about testing the Oparin Hypothesis that organic compounds could arise from inorganics given the right condition, such as in a primordial earth atmosphere. And they succeeded. You are absolutely correct in that they found these amino acids, and here's the kicker, we also find them in molecular clouds in space. Cool, neh?

[goatmilk222]

@MumblingMickey I said this well over 2 years ago. I was ignorant :|

[FarhanC99]

ever heard of the Miller–Urey experiment?

simply, 50 years ago 2 scientists decided to do an experiment in which they would simulate the conditions that would have been present on the earth millions of years ago, and try to create life from it

a few years ago some scientist dug up his work after his death and re-examined his original results, they found i think it was 22 amino acids, which are "the building blocks of life"

this by no means proves evolution but its a step in that direction

[ITTutorCanada]

@MumblingMickey That's interesting, I hadn't heard of this. After doing some research it appears that they didn't discover them on titan as you imply, but rather in a computer simulation where they did their best to re-create a model of the atmosphere and then applied various forms of energy, their model shows the potential to generate amino acids. This still however, does not address the astronomical odds of assembling them into functional proteins, as pointed out by Douglas Axe.

[MumblingMickey]

@ITTutorCanada Well it was disregarded (by the general public at least) until the point the Huygens probe found amino acids abundant on Titan...along with nucleotides...and those are in the atmosphere of Titan.

At that point it became pretty obvious amino acids will form anywhere there is carbon and nitrogen and energy as a catalyst. Even the presence of water is not a prerequisite! So where Miller couldn't obviously know what atmosphere the earth had...as it turns out he didn't need to.

[MumblingMickey]

@goatmilk222 Yeah they know there were a lot more than just those...which in fact makes the process of amino acid formation easier... as demonstrated by the Huygens probe on Titan... which found amino acids. Titan certainly does not have the same atmosphere as the early earth.

But thats the point amino acids are really easy to produce... you don't have to get the atmosphere absolutely 'perfect'. All you need is carbon and water and an energy catalyst.

[MumblingMickey]

@MarcusPhoenix Proteins came a long time AFTER amino acid formation... in fact proteins are constructed FROM amino acids...and they do not form readily into the complex proteins in modern cells. But many polymers do form from monomers...

[MumblingMickey]

@Flagan65 Agreed... but answers to uneducated idiots do have to be presented in a form they understand and in 500 characters or less.

So stating 'all wheels roll' is not truly the case in all circumstances either... but when some total moron points out that 'no wheel ever rolled, its all a lie promoted by wheelutionits' ...well in that case getting into specifics is beside the point.

In the case of this vid they are arguing against something they can demonstrate to themselves for $50!