The Diversity of the Original Prebiotic Soup: Re-analyzing the Original Miller–Urey Spark Discharge Experiments

摘要

On May 15th, 1953, a short paper by a graduate student named Stanley Miller appeared in the journal Science. It described the spark discharge formation of glycine, alanine and several other amino acids (Miller, 1953) from inorganic constituents thought to comprise the hypothesized reducing atmosphere of early Earth. Miller’s work quite literally “sparked” the legitimization of the field of prebiotic chemistry; the basic molecules of life could, with relative ease, be synthesized from inorganic compounds thought to be abundant in the Earth’s atmosphere 4.5 billion years ago. Darwin’s “warm little pond” was no longer a hypothetical concept as much as a feasible scenario.