In the early 1950’s while a graduate student in Chemistry at the University of Chicago in the laboratories of Harold Urey, Stanley Miller performed what some now describe as the most important experiments of the last half of the twentieth century. After exposing a mixture of methane, ammonia, water vapor and hydrogen to select electrical discharges for a few days, he found a red/brown discoloration in the condensed water. This organic mixture proved to contain several of the amino acids used by nature in the production of the proteins of life. First published in 1953 in Science, these Miller-Urey experiments dramatically impacted both the scientific community and general public. The media reported its development with glowing optimism. Time said, “The Miller-Urey experiments have simulated conditions of a primitive Earth and created out of its atmospheric gases several organic compounds that are close to proteins… if their apparatus had been as big as the ocean, and if it had worked for a million years, instead of one week, it might have created something like the first living molecule.”

Later Carl Sagan noted that “the Miller-Urey experiment is now recognized as the single most significant step in convincing many scientists that life is likely to be abundant in the cosmos.” It was soon realized that Miller-Urey was a near ideal expression of the classic “pre-biotic soup” idea about the origin of life first suggested by Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane. Subsequent studies have suggested that this idea may not have invoked the right gas mixture promoting modified investigations. Stanley Miller has also been at the forefront of these new studies.

A potentially interesting alternative to the fluid-only “pre-biotic soup,” with its extensive randomness, placed the origin in a silicate (clay) womb. Originally the idea of J.D. Bernal, the clay thesis was expanded to extreme proportions by the Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Carins-Smith. Recently the Chairperson of “Surface Analysis ‘99” has suggested a silicate induced beginning for life in particular zeolites or pillared clays, with their selective, well-positioned acidic sites. More recently, the brilliant geochemist Joseph Smith (University of Chicago) has provided interesting evidence for possible evolution in select structures of the common framework silicate, feldspars. Stanley Miller has challenged these “mud”-based theories indicating places where they also lack total compatibility. It is appropriate to say that Stanley Miller is the key to the past, present and future of “Origin of Life” concepts.

Terry L. Barr General Conference Chair for Surface Analysis ‘99
21st Annual Symposium on Applied Surface Analysis
4/6/99