Early variety of organic compounds

The question concerns every child at some point. And the experiment seems to at first also as if it had come up with a few curious elementary school students. How life arose on Earth, may finally explain to this day exactly a scientist.

In May 1953, the then unknown to 23-year-old Stanley Miller of the University of Chicago, a short science articles published, the world suddenly seemed plausible to explain the origins of the. In the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Harold Urey, the young graduate student a couple of glass tube, the substances mixed in, from which the primordial atmosphere and the primeval oceans of early Earth could have existed.

With electric discharges, the researchers simulated lightning, and after only a few experiments were formed organic compounds in the brew, including various amino acids, the building blocks of life.

The experiment of Miller and Urey quickly became famous and their concept of the primordial soup , some billion years before the first primitive life forms have developed, four of the, gained worldwide popularity. Now shows that the broth from which we are all probably originated, perhaps even more nutritious than Miller was discovered to be alive self. Finally, all who died in 2007, the researchers did not evaluate his experiments.

Jeffrey Bada of the University of San Diego, a former student of Miller describes in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (online) from this Tuesday, how rich life on early Earth could have been of the nutrient solution. "To our surprise, the yield of amino acids was much more productive than any of the experiments Miller performed has to end," said Bada.

The researchers had discovered a batch of samples in the estate, which Miller had planned in 1958 and started, which then ran into oblivion and had never published the research. For its original experiments in 1953 Miller used methane, hydrogen, water vapor and ammonia to simulate the primordial atmosphere.

In the experiments, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide in 1958 also was included. From this altered mix developed 23 different amino acids and four amines, including seven organic sulfur compounds, and so much more than Miller had discovered.


"It was very early on earth, a variety of organic compounds that had not previously thought possible," the researchers speculate. "Miller had the corresponding experiments in 1958 actually done it himself, he did not know it only."


For the origin of life , according to the subsequent analysis helped the many volcanoes in the decisions that covered the earth in prehistoric times. They may have released hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere and at that time were probably far more water and covered with ice than today mountains of fire. It smoked and hissed and constantly flashed the steaming down on primordial Earth. From these raw materials and from the other gases caused by the electric discharge energy in thunderstorms various amino acids to proteins together then sat down. Whether in muscle, organ tissue, skin, or in the organelles of the cells - each creature type contains various proteins as the basic structure of the body. Quite possible, the researchers said that the locally bounded at the foot of volcanoes, the first primitive life forms developed.

The experiments of Miller and his students not only shed light on the possible early development of the earth. They also leave room for speculation about future life in space and suggest how primitive organisms elsewhere in the universe could have originated in or are still emerging: the hydrogen sulfide from Miller's experiments of 1958 is similar to the finally, the back always found in meteorites is. Under favorable conditions and with the right combination of the recipe could tide pool locations in space nachgekocht therefore be able to and maybe others - if you take a few billion years could be.

Miller had the experiments with hydrogen sulfide from 1958 although occasionally mentioned to his staff, but in life no longer cared. According to the findings of today's geoscientists his then mix the conditions come on the early Earth much closer than that of his original experiments of 1953. Equipped with more refined methods and more accurate analysis Miller's successor will soon repeat the other tests of their scientific training. Quite possible that they do encounter other new findings about the nursery of the earth.