Question

An experiment to prove that organic compounds were the basis of life, was performed by

• A. Oparin
• B. Miller
• C. Melvin
• D. Fox

Answer 1

The correct option is B Miller

In 1953, Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Urey, working at the University of Chicago, conducted an experiment which would change the approach of scientific investigation into the origin of life.

Miller took molecules which were believed to represent the major components of the early Earth's atmosphere and put them into a closed system

The gases they used were methane (CH${}_4$), ammonia (NH${}_3$), hydrogen (H${}_2$), and water (H${}_2$O). Next, he ran a continuous electric current through the system, to simulate lightning storms believed to be common on the early Earth. Analysis of the experiment was done by chromatography. At the end of one week, Miller observed that as much as 10-15% of the carbon was now in the form of organic compounds. Two percent of the carbon had formed some of the amino acids which are used to make proteins. Perhaps most importantly, Miller's experiment showed that organic compounds such as amino acids, which are essential to cellular life, could be made easily under the conditions that scientists believed to be present on the early Earth. This enormous finding inspired a multitude of further experiments.