Question

Explain Stanley Miller's experiment with a neat labelled diagram.

Answer 1

• In the 1950s, biochemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey conducted an experiment that demonstrated that several organic compounds could be formed spontaneously by forming the conditions of Earth's early atmosphere.
  
• They designed an apparatus that held a mixture of gases similar to those found in Earth's early atmosphere over a pool of water, representing Earth's early ocean.
• Electrodes delivered an electric current, simulating lightning, into the gas-filled chamber.
• After allowing the experiment to run for one week, they analyzed the contents of the liquid pool.
• They found that several organic amino acids had formed spontaneously from inorganic raw material.
  
• Their experiments, along with considerable biological, and chemical evidence, lend support to the theory that the first life forms arose spontaneously through naturally occurring chemical reactions.