What Is the Urey-Miller Experiment - Essay Example

• In order to adapt to the changes of the environment, they can evolve from one generation to another generation through their capacity for genetic change (Chaisson, & McMillan 365).
However, these rules are not strict and a good working definition of life is difficult to describe. For instance, stars can grow by accumulation, can react with the gravity of their neighboring star, can produce energy, as well as they can produce again by triggering the new stars' formation; despite all these characteristics, they are not living organisms. According to most research workers, the difference between nonliving and living is more difficult than a simple list of rules (Chaisson, & McMillan 365).

The Urey-Miller Experiment
In 1953, on the primitive ground, the 1st experimental demonstration for the evolution of complex molecules in a natural way from simpler components was discovered. In this experiment, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey took a mixture of the different materials like a "primordial soup" of water, ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) and then energized it by passing discharge of electricity through it (Chaisson, & McMillan 365). A few days after the experiment was done, they examined their mixture and discovered that the mixture contained lots of amino acids that are similar to those that are nowadays found in every living thing on earth. Later on, scientific researchers successfully discovered nucleotide bases by performing a similar experiment.
The above figure shows the experimental settings of the Miller-Urey Experiment. Almost a week later, different complex molecules and amino acids were detected at the bottom of the trap, which reproduces the primordial mass within which heavy molecules were produced in the overlying atmosphere would have diminished (Chaisson, & McMillan 365).

The Chemical Evolution
There are many basic components in microspheres that are required in the formation of life but these microspheres are not living themselves. Microspheres do not have deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) hereditary molecules. Despite the fact that no real-life cell has been created yet from the beginning, most biochemists believe that the chemical evolution is a series of experiments most importantly from simple molecules that are not biological nearly to the life itself has been fully proved (Chaisson, & McMillan 365).
The figure above shows the chemical evolution. In this figure, a tiny drop similar to protein and rich in carbon shows the combination of many of the molecules of amino acid in a liquid. These droplets can grow further, as well as split from their parent droplets in order to turn into a new single droplet (for example A, B, C shown in the figure).