Primordial Soup: Interview with Stanley Miller

An anonymous reader writes "Stanley Miller's classic 'primordial soup' experiments showed that 13 of the 21 amino acids necessary for life could be made in a glass flask. For its fifty-year commemoration, Miller is interviewed today and reflects on what Carl Sagan called 'the single most significant step in convincing many scientists that life is likely to be abundant in the cosmos.'"

Comments

Land Sharks

[Scoria]

showed that 13 of the 21 amino acids necessary for life could be made in a glass flask

Of course, certain products of his experiments often indicate that not all of them are necessary. These products are, of course, "intellectual property lawyers." :-)

Miller's Aide

[Joe the Lesser]

Miller had an unknown aide during this project. He spent a lot of time working with the fledgling life forms as they formed a society and culture. They became to see him as a God, and worship him.

One fateful day, they managed to shrink the aide using a debigulator device, so he could lead their civilization. When he demanded they unshrink him, they were indeed astounded by the very notion of a re-bigulator device.

True story.

Pepto to the rescue

[tundog]

I stopped eating primordial soup because the amino acids keep giving me heartburn.

Miller-Ade

[Damek]

Mmmm... Miller-Ade...

Duplicated His Results

[Greyfox]

I've duplicated his results in my refridgerator and now have some primordial soup in there. It's chicken noodle primordial soup and tastes great with fresh baked bread.

If this experiment was done today..

[MongooseCN]

Would the experimentor claim intellectual property rights to the amino acids he found? "Sorry you can't use those drugs, I own the rights to all life on this planet."

Re:I tried this experiment in high school...sort o

[archeopterix]

It hardly needs saying, but in a week I didn't make any amino acids I could detect.

My high school experiment results were quite different - I had to throw the jar into a volcano after the evolved organisms created a civilization and started working on a technology to break the jar and take over the Earth. At least that's what I wrote in my paper. My mark was also quite different, and needless to say I wasn't very happy with it.

Re:I tried this experiment in high school...sort o

[paiute]

The chemical was ninhydrin. Reacts with primary amines to give a purple spot on TLC.

Glass is a good blocker of UV. That's why one uses quartz cuvettes to determine the UV spectra of solutions from ca. 400 down to ca. 200 nm. I suspect this is where the good high-energy UVs that might have given you some chemical reactions are.

Creationists...

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, Creationists don't take this theory seriously, because why would there be a glass flask on prehistoric Earth in the first place?

Ironically....

[Tsali]

All 21 chemicals can be found in a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken...