The Urey Miller Experiment

In 1953, Stanley Miller, a PhD student, proposed to his supervisor Harold Urey, an experiment to test if the chemosynthetic origins of life were possible under the conditions of what early Earth was like.

This would in part answer the chicken and the egg question about whether it was possible for the early Earth to produce the chemicals needed to sustain life, before life itself actually got going on Earth.

Energy source and some of the gases that Miller proposed to use.           Note NO OXYGEN.

Miller then set up his experiment as follows:



Over a number of days the apparatus showed orange brown materials sticking to the glass and in solution.  Chemical analysis showed the following:


The final group of materials include amino acids (used to make proteins). Other substances include metabolites that certain types of cells can get energy out of.  


The findings were significant for a number of reasons:

1. The early Earth could not have had oxygen present (supported by other geological evidence)
2. The early Earth had conditions that could have allowed for the generation of molecules that would sustain life
3. Other variations of the experiment showed that molecules that could be used in DNA and RNA could be produced.