Page 49 - The Evolution Impasse 2

Miller Experiment, The 47

the bot tom of the jar and ob served
that he had syn the sized three of the
20 ami no ac ids con sti tut ing the
build ing blocks of pro teins.
The re sult of the ex per i ment
caused great joy among ev o lu tion -
ists and was an nounced as a great
suc cess. Indeed, some pub li ca tions
went so far as to pro duce head lines
read ing "Miller Creates Life." Yet all
that he had ac tu al ly syn the sized was
a few in an i mate mol e cu les.
With the cour age they took from
this ex per i ment, ev o lu tion ists im me -
di ate ly pro duced new sce nar i os.
There was im me di ate spec u la tion
about the sta ges that must have tak -
en place aft er the ami no ac ids' for -
Stanley Miller's ex per i men tal set up. ma tion. According to the sce nar io,
these came to geth er in the ap pro pri -
meth ane, hy dro gen and wa ter va - ate or der as the re sult of chance, and
por. Since un der nor mal con di tions, gave rise to pro teins. Some of these
these gas ses would not en ter in to re - pro teins, the work of still more ran -
ac tions with one an oth er, he add ed dom co in ci den ces, in stalled them -
en er gy from the out side. The en er - selves in side struc tures re sem bling
gy—which he thought might have cell mem branes—which al so came
stemmed from light ning in the prim - in to be ing in some way, and thus
i tive at mos phere—he pro vid ed by gave rise to the cell. Cells grad u al ly
means of an ar ti fi cial elec tri cal lined up along side one an oth er and
charge. gave rise to liv ing or gan isms.
Miller heat ed this mix ture of gas - The Miller ex per i ment—the ba sis
ses at 100°C for a week, while al so for this sce nar io, not one sin gle stage
pro vid ing an elec tri cal cur rent. At of which is backed up by any ev i -
the end of the week, Miller meas - dence at all—was noth ing more than
ured the chem i cals in the mix ture at