Modernized Experiment

[The Skeptic]

Urey-Miller Experiment

 

The URL below has a diagram that displays the Urey-Miller experiment. This experiment's purpose was to simulate pre-biotic soup and the generation of early life. The experiment used water (H₂0), methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), and hydrogen (H₂). Looking at the diagram will explain this a lot better. Miller and Urey believed the experiment was successful. I have my doubts. Just producing 11 out of 20 amino acids is not close to a cell. Wikipedia will have much more information if you would like to know more about the original experiment.

 

http://en.wikipedia....Urey_experiment

 

Modernizing the Experiment

 

I am wishing to perform a modernized Urey-Miller experiment for a local science fair. I need to perform research on what fossils and rocks can tell us about earth's early atmosphere. Some evidence points towards a much different atmosphere but I believe if I could get some input then this will turn out to be a much more thorough experiment. I would prefer direct evidence such as diagnosis of air bubbles in amber rather than speculation. Also I would like to see if any changes of the setup to the experiment could be made to reflect a more accurate representation. I would also love advice on how to put this together, sterilizing the equipment, tips, and how to analyze the chemicals. Any input would be great!

 

 

Hope this interests many people, I will publish my results when I am done.

Edited September 16, 2010 by The Skeptic

[insane_alien]

Urey-Miller Experiment

 

The URL below has a diagram that displays the Urey-Miller experiment. This experiment's purpose was to simulate pre-biotic soup and the generation of early life. The experiment used water (H₂0), methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), and hydrogen (H₂). Looking at the diagram will explain this a lot better. Miller and Urey believed the experiment was successful. I have my doubts. Just producing 11 out of 20 amino acids is not close to a cell. Wikipedia will have much more information if you would like to know more about the original experiment.

 

it was never meant to produce a cell(though that would have been an awesome unexpected bonus, direct observation of abiogenesis)

 

the fact that it managed to produce amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins means that if given time, proteins would form from polymerisation of the amino acids. with the introduction of the proteins and enzymes that would have arisen, interesting chemical reactions would have occured that lead on to life.

 

urey-miller were only looking for the creation of compounds present in life.

 

 

I am wishing to perform a modernized Urey-Miller experiment for a local science fair. I need to perform research on what fossils and rocks can tell us about earth's early atmosphere. Some evidence points towards a much different atmosphere but I believe if I could get some input then this will turn out to be a much more thorough experiment. I would prefer direct evidence such as diagnosis of air bubbles in amber rather than speculation.

 

amber is a product of life, specifically, trees. analysing trapped gasses in amber would not give you an example of pre-life atmosphere but of one heavily modified by life.

 

the approximation by urey-miller is pretty close to what the evidence says was present in the atmosphere at the relevant time. it wasn't based on pure speculation.

[Mr Skeptic]

The ideal way to analyze your results would be a mass spectrometer, nuclear magnetic resonance, UV/Vis or IR spectrometry, and such. However those are probably inaccessible to you. You could do a chromatography to separate your results, but that would probably only give you very poor results due to dilution and colorless compounds. While the experiment itself you could do in a science fair, the analysis not so much.

 

Just be sure you understand what the experiment was supposed to prove.