Close view of Stromboli Volcano erupting incandescent molten lava fragments.Credit: USGS and B. Chouet in December 1969
From Live Science:
Fifty years ago, a chemist named Stanley Miller conducted a famous experiment to investigate how life could have started on Earth.
Recently, scientists re-analyzed his results using modern technology and found a new implication: The original sparks for life on our planet could have come from volcanic eruptions.
The 1950s experiment was designed to test how the ingredients necessary for life could arise.
Miller and his University of Chicago mentor Harold Urey used a system of closed flasks containing water and a gas of simple molecules thought to be common in Earth's early atmosphere. They zapped the gas with an electric spark (representing lightning on ancient Earth), and found that after a couple of weeks the water turned brown. It turned out that amino acids, the complex molecules that make up proteins, had formed from the simple materials in the flasks.
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