Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Keeping Moccasin Laces Tied

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A 1958 experiment may have shown how life originated
Investigators believe lightning volcanic activity and the gases react together to produce the essential elements Casa de Brasil


NASA

Facultad de Geológicas y Biológicas, 1965-1969, Oviedo


Basílica de Nª Sª de Aránzazu


A mixture of hydrogen sulfide, water, methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia gas was necessary for the emergence of life Colegio de Las Teresianas

In 1953, a young researcher Stanley Miller
, became world famous for his studies on origin of life, to reproduce in the laboratory the conditions that allegedly occurred in the early Earth. Five years later, the scientist created again this
"primordial soup"
in a second similar experiment, but the samples were forgotten and, as we know, Miller, who died in 2007, never again to work with them. Now, scientists
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla (USA) recovered this treasure scientific results that can be a significant step in the clarification of fundamental questions. After analyzing the samples, the team has concluded that lightning, volcanic activity and the gases associated with these phenomena could have reacted together to produce the first life-creating elements. The finding is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
All began when Jeffrey Bada, a former student of Miller, found the samples from the laboratory material chemistry teacher. Bada and his colleagues, led by Eric T. Parker, analyzed new samples archived from the experiment that had never before been made public. simulating the primitive Earth conditions by exposing a mixture of hydrogen sulfide, water, methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia gas to electric shock similar to lightning.
modern techniques of chemical analysis, which are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than the methods of investigation of 50, identified the amino acids containing sulfur, Without them protein and other waste components of the original test of Miller. Detected only minimal pollution. The new findings support the idea that volcanoes, an important source of hydrogen sulfide and now-rays turned the simple gases on a large number of amino acids, which in turn were essential to the creation of simple proteins. Arrival
a meteorite
The authors also believe that amino acids produced in Miller's experiment with
hydrogen sulfide are similar to those found in meteorites.
For this reason, two meteorites studied carbon-based, each amino acid concentrations similar to those synthesized by Miller. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that hydrogen sulfide, in particular, played an important role in chemical reactions that were the precursors of the origin of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the early solar system. Supports the hypothesis, in large part, the controversial theory of Panspermia
, which says that asteroids could spread life throughout the universe, opening the door to the existence of the same on other planets.
ABC.ES,
j.
jorge /
madrid
Day 21/03/2011 - 7:58 p.m.
Posted by admin at 9:03 AM

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