A note from Daniel

In 1953, 2 University of Chicago professors, Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Urey, created a closed system of glass tubes and flasks that simulated the early conditions of the prebiotic earth. The main ingredients were methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) hydrogen (H2), and water (H2O). Only the methane contained carbon atoms. One flask connected to the chemical soup contained a pair of electrodes, which Miller and Urey used to simulate lightning by triggering a series of quick sparks between them. They ran the experiment for seven straight days, and by the time they had completed the first cycle, they found that more than 10 percent of the carbon had spontaneously recombined into many of the organic compounds essential to life: sugars, lipids, nucleic acids.

Daniel Where Good Ideas Come From, page 49 · February 15, 2024 Save to shelf
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