Question

help! :) please and thank youu.

Use what you know about the Miller-Urey experiments to discuss the factors needed for life to arise, and speculate on whether life could arise on another planet.

Answer 1

Hi, what do you already know about the Miller-Urey experiment?

Answer 2

basically just what the book told me "Miller and Urey's experiment suggested how mixtures of the organic compounds necessary for life could have arisen from simpler compounds on a primitive earth"

Answer 3

Do you know about the apparatus (set-up, etc) of the experiment?

Answer 4

not really sure, i'm kind of confused about the over all topic.

Answer 5

Like what your textbook writes, life on Earth started with the synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic compounds. To understand what the primitive Earth was like, Miller and Urey set up this experiment. Think of this experiment as a simulation of primitive Earth. The experiment's aim was to see if inorganic molecules can be synthesized when only inorganic molecules are inputted into the apparatus.

In the beginning, Earth had no atmosphere. The main gases in the primitive atmosphere were methane, ammonia, hydrogen, water vapor and carbon monoxide. By inputting energy through the means of electrical sparks (simulating lightning) and warming the water (simulating heat from the sun heating up the ocean) in the apparatus, organic compounds was found days later. This experiment supports the hypothesis that organic compounds can be synthesized from inorganic compounds. See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Miller-Urey_experiment-en.svg for the apparatus

Answer 6

this is all like a foreign language to me, but would the gases you listed be considered the factors needed for life to arise?

Answer 7

yea and the electrical sparks

Answer 8

it says that their experiments were incorrect. would that mean that life couldn't arise on a different planet?

Answer 9

What do you mean by incorrect?

Answer 10

it says that their ideas on the composition of early atmosphere were incorrect

Answer 11

Hmm... I've just googled this, as it's the first time I've heard of a possible problem with this experiment. From what I've found on Google, the only sites that totally rejects the experiment were sites that have religious bias. But nonetheless, I think the main idea of organic molecules such as amino acids being able to be synthesized from inorganic molecules stays true.

Answer 12

i understand the first portion of the question completely and have a pretty decent understanding of the whole thing now, thank you!! would it be possible to give an example as to how i would word out the second portion though?

Answer 13

I think life can arise on another planet, just like primeval Earth, when those conditions are met.

Answer 14

thank you soo much for your help