Classical Experiments that Lead to the Discovery of First

Life

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Learn about it!
• About 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth began to exist.
The existence of life, as believed by many scientists,
started from the moment the Earth’s environment
became stable to support life. Several theories were
proposed to explain life’s origin. One of these theories
is the primordial soup theory proposed by Alexander
Oparin and John Haldane.

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• According to this theory, life started in
a primordial soup of organic molecules.
Chemicals from the atmosphere and some
form of energy from lightning combined to
make amino acids which are the building
blocks of protein.

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• Several scientists conducted different experiments
that modeled conditions which may have enabled
the first life forms to evolve. Among these
experiments are
> The Electrical Discharge Experiment,
> Thermal Synthesis,and
> The Protocell Experiment.

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Electrical Discharge Experiment
• Stanley Miller and Harold Urey verified the primordial soup
theory by simulating the formation of organic molecules on the
early Earth. They confined methane, ammonia, water, and
hydrogen in a closed system and applied continuous electrical
sparks to trigger the formation of the building blocks of life.
After a day, they observed a change of color in the solution.
After a week, the solution was tested, and they found out that
several amino acids were produced. 

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• The purpose of this experiment was not to try and produce amino acids, rather, its
purpose was to explore the conditions of the early Earth and what the naturally
occurring results would be. 6
Thermal Synthesis
• Sidney Fox demonstrated in his experiment the origin of life
using a specific mixture of pure, dry amino acids. In his
experiment, after heating the mixture, an aqueous solution
was formed and cooled into microscopic globules
called protenoid microspheres. The globules looked like
coccoid bacteria and seemed to be budding, which is a form of
reproduction in some microorganisms.

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He claimed that the protenoid
microspheres
constituted protocells – almost
true cells, and multiplied through
division like true cells. He believed
that these cells were the link
between the primordial
environment and the true living
cells.

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The Protocell Experiment

• Jack Szostak contemplated on how early life forms

formed in a primordial chemical environment. He then
thought that the simplest possible living cells or
protocells just required two components to be formed:
a nucleic acid genome to transmit the genetic
information and a lipid sac which encapsulated the
genome and let itself grow and divide.

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• Szostak built lipid sacs made in fatty acids and a replicase – an
RNA molecule that catalyzes its own replication, in the test
tube. He found out that lipid sacs with more RNA grew faster.
He suggested that such test tube evolution was possible. The
results suggested that the early forms of life with just a single
gene, an RNA gene, could have undergone a Darwinian
evolution.

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Try it!
• Try to leave a piece of bread on the table for two to three
weeks. What do you think will happen to it? How will you
relate this to the experiments about the origin of life?

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What do you think?
• Which of the three experiments is the most plausible in
determining the origin of life? Why?

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Key Points
• One of the theories about the early forms of life is the primordial soup theoryproposed
by Alexander Oparin and John Haldane.
• Several scientists conducted different experiments that modeled conditions which may
have enabled the first life forms to evolve; these include Electrical Discharge
Experiment, Thermal Synthesis, and The Protocell Experiment.
• Stanley Miller and Harold Urey verified the primordial soup theory by simulating the
formation of organic molecules on the early Earth.
• Sidney Fox demonstrated in his experiment the origin of life using a specific mixture of
pure, dry amino acids.
• Jack Szostak made protocells from a lipid sac and a replicase – an RNA molecule that
catalyzes its own replication.

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