Writing Feedback / Barron's integrated essay 6. The origin of life. Stanley Miller. [3]

An experiment was carried in order to find the origin of life. In this research project a graduate student at the Chicago University Stanley Miller tried to simulate chemical evolution that caused the origin of life. He took two flasks connected to each other and filled with water. Then he added methane, hydrogen, and ammonia that were main chemicals during early times on Earth. Then he heated flask, inserted electrodes in it and subjected it to the contineous electrical charges. At the end of this experiment mixture that was later called "primordial soup" turned orange and there were found organic compunds, mainly amino acids. Although results of this resarch could not explain how first cell was formed it caused many new investiagtion so that to find the origin of life. Additionally, the consept and results of this experiment is skeptical due to some reasons. Firstly, during time when life on Earth began there were not contineous stroms, however, in experiment Miller used contimous electrical charges. Secondly, in the mixture 15 % of carbon converted to amino acids and this amount is too high for real chemical processes. Thirdly, there was not any oxygen in the flask and this fact casts doubt to the resluts of chemical processes. Finally, amino acids are also found in asteroids that hitted Earth and because early Earth was similar to meteroits, it can be thought that amino acids were on Earth from the beginning. So this chemicals was not the result of frequent storms.