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Origin of life: Glass flask was catalyst in famous Miller-Urey experiment

Harold Clayton Urey

Harold Urey (1893-1981) was a pioneering chemist

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

A well-known origin-of-life experiment from the Fifties could have extra precisely mimicked nature than we initially thought.

The influential Miller-Urey experiment confirmed that with simply water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane – and electrical sparks to imitate lightning – you may kind a number of of the protein precursors essential for all times on Earth. Stanley Miller and Harold Urey’s goal was to recreate the chemical circumstances of early Earth.

However what the researchers had by no means explicitly thought-about was whether or not the character of the container used within the experiment had any impact on the result.

“We don’t know why nobody checked out this earlier than,” says Ernesto Di Mauro on the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology in Rome, Italy. “Generally it’s the best issues that individuals miss.”

Di Mauro and his group repeated the experiment with the identical sort of borosilicate glass container used within the authentic experiment and likewise reran the examine with a container constructed from Teflon. In a 3rd rerun of the experiment, they added glass chips to the Teflon container combination.

The group speculated that the reactions carried out within the presence of glass would generate extra advanced molecules as a result of glass incorporates silicates. Silicate can get dissolved and reabsorbed on to the floor of a mix and so have an effect on what sort of reactions happen, says Di Mauro.

Teflon then again, which wasn’t broadly used within the Fifties when Miller and Urey ran their experiment, is chemically inert and has no such impact.

Di Mauro’s group discovered that the glass beaker did certainly comprise probably the most various combination of advanced natural response merchandise. In the meantime, the Teflon beaker with glass chips produced fewer advanced compounds – most likely as a result of the glass chips had a decrease mixed floor space than the glass beaker itself. There have been even fewer advanced compounds when the experiment was run in a Teflon beaker with no glass current.

“The glass is just like the rocks on Earth – it catalyses the response,” says Di Mauro.

Greater than 90 per cent of Earth’s crust is made up of silicates, and they’re additionally frequent on planets like Mars, the place they could even have helped to catalyse reactions that may be necessary for the origin of life.

“I’m shocked nobody has checked out this earlier than,” says Valentina Erastova on the College of Edinburgh, UK. “I feel this examine simply confirms for me that the Miller-Urey experiments have been even smarter than initially envisaged.”

Journal reference: Scientific Experiences, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-00235-4

 

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