The Miller-Urey Model Experiments

Very few chemical experiments resulted in as much publicity as the first synthesis of biomolecules under prebiotic conditions carried out by the doctoral candidate 

Rauchfuss, Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 

These experiments provided the first proof that the question of the origin of life is a scientific problem which can be approached (and possibly solved) by using scientific methodology. 

Several institutes throughout the world immediately began to carry out experiments on prebiotic chemistry. At this point, we need to realize that the prebiotic synthesis of protein building blocks is only a first step towards solving the biogenesis problem. Put simply, it is a method for making bricks which will later be used in building a multi-storey office block  

A few facts about the Miller-Urey experiments the now famous original apparatus was modified and improved by Miller himself, and by other groups, in order to improve product yields. In the reaction vessel, temperatures near the reaction zone were between 350 and 370 K, but as high as 870-920 K at the centre of the reaction. Experiments took between several hours and a whole week. The main products (starting with the highest yields) were formic acid, glycine, lactic acid and 

Stanley Miller at the University of Chicago more than 50 years ago. This experiment (in fact, of course, many were carried out prior to the successful one) is probably as well known as the Wohler synthesis of urea Miller s doctoral supervisor, Harold Urey (winner of the Nobel Prize in 1934), had suggested to Miller that he simulate a reducing primeval Earth atmosphere (as required by the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis) to electrical discharges and see what happens . Urey apparently expected that such an experiment would lead to a huge variety of organic compounds. 

The idea that the organic compounds that serve as the basis of life were formed when the earth had an atmosphere of methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and water was suggested by Oparin (1) and has been given enmhasis recentlv bv Urev (2) and Bernal (3). 

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