How are we actually alive?

[lestatdark]

darthdevidem01 said:

lestatdark said:

darthdevidem01 said:

Didn't scientists do experiments where they replicated the conditions of early earth and were able to form basic forms of life?

Yes, the Miller-Urey experiment, were they used a mixture of Water, Methane, Ammonia and Hydrogen, connected to two flasks, one simulating the evaporating atmosphere and another containing a pair of electrodes which were stimulated in constant time intervals with sparks, simulating the constant lightning storms of the early earth. 

After a few weeks, carbon based molecules began to form, some aminoacids like Glycine, Alanine and Lysine; Sugars, non-polar liquid solvents such as acetone, and most important, the appearance of Guanidosine and Adenosine (which are the isolated forms of the nucleic bases, Guanidine and Adenine).

Yeah thats the one!!

I am surprised how less people know about this experiment, I only found out a few months ago!

It really is a breakthrough of sorts.

There are even more variable studies that Miller did using similar principles, such as a volcanic simulation, which yielded far more aminoacids, amines and even hydroxil radicals, which is the prime molecule used to explain why the greenhouse effect gases of the early earth dissipated and gave way to the N2/O2 mixture of the current earth's atmosphere.

Also, this suggests that volcanic formations in early earth were populated by a large mass of organic molecules, which in conjunction with the residuary carbonyl sulfide that emanated from those volcanoes, could have lead to the formation of peptides as well.