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The Nature of the Spark Is a Pivotal Element in the Design of a Miller–Urey Experiment
Miller and Urey applied electric sparks to a reducive mixture of CH(4), NH(3), and water to obtain a complex organic mixture including biomolecules. In this study, we examined the impact of temperature, initial pressure, ammonia concentration, and the spark generator on the chemical profile of a Mil...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10672138/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38004341 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13112201 |
Sumario: | Miller and Urey applied electric sparks to a reducive mixture of CH(4), NH(3), and water to obtain a complex organic mixture including biomolecules. In this study, we examined the impact of temperature, initial pressure, ammonia concentration, and the spark generator on the chemical profile of a Miller–Urey-type prebiotic broth. We analyzed the broth composition using Gas Chromatography combined with Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS). The results point towards strong compositional changes with the nature of the spark. Ammonia exhibited catalytic properties even with non-nitrogen-containing compounds. A more elevated temperature led to a higher variety of substances. We conclude that to reproduce such a broth as well as possible, all the studied parameters need to be tightly controlled, the most difficult and important being spark generation. |
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