Urey miller experiment

Urey Miller Experiment

1. UREY-MILLER EXPERIMENT SONIA JOHN I M.Sc. Zoology Mar Ivanios College

2. INTRODUCTION Experiment simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present on the Early Earth Tested the chemical origin of life Tested Oparin&Haldane Hypothesis Classical experimenting investigating abiogenesis

3. EXPERIMENT Conducted in 1953 by Stanley Miller& Harold Urey

4. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP Special flask: ; Glass flasks connected in a loop with one flask half-filled with water & another flask containing a pair of electrodes. Mixture of gases: NH3,CH4 and hydrogen taken in the flask Boiling water. High frequency spark by tungsten electrodes Condensor

5. APPARATUS

6. EXPERIMENT Steam from the boiling water mixes with the other gases in the apparatus This is passed into the section containing the electrodes and the spark The steam and the mixture of gases is cooled down via the help of condensor and flows back to the boiling water flask.

7. RESULTS The resulting fluid collected was analysed The mixture consisted of : amino acids like glycine , alanine,aspartic acid Sugar molecules Purines,pyrimidines etc

8. CHEMISTRY OF EXPERIMENT One step reaction among mixture components can produce hydrogen cyanide , formaldehyde CH4 +2[O] CH2O + H2O CH4+NH3 HCN + 3H2

9. CHEMISTRY OF EXPERIMENT The formaldehyde , ammonia , & HCN react to form amino acids & other biomolecules . CH2O+HCN+NH3 NH2-CH2-CN + H2O NH2- CH2-CN+2H2O NH3+ NH2-CH2-COOH ( Glycine )

10. SIMILAR EXPERIMENTS 1961 Joan Oro-  Adenine could be made from HCN and NH3 in a water solution.   Many amino acids are formed from HCN and ammonia under these conditions. Experiments conducted later showed that the other RNA and DNA nucleotide bases could be obtained through simulated prebiotic chemistry with a reducing atmosphere.

11. What The Experiments Indicate Electric discharges produced during lightening in the early atmosphere containing ammonia, nitrogen .methane ,hydrogen, water etc might have resulted in the formation of amino acids and other complex components of living systems in the soupy sea.

12. CONCLUSION   The Miller-Urey experiment stimulated condition thought at time to present on early earth & tested for occurence of chemical origin of life’. In 1953 Stanley Miller & Harold Urey conducted experiments on the chemical origin of life. This experiment was helpful in understanding the condition of Earth’s early atmosphere.

13. REFERENCES Charlotte.J.Avers .1989. Process and pattern in evolution . Oxford University Press . Mohan . P.Arora .2000.Evolutionary Biology.Himalaya Publishing House.Delhi Veer Bala Rastogi . Organic Evolution(1 st edn ). Kedar Nath Ram Nath,Meerut http://en.wikipedia.org/Miller-Urey Experiment