Origins of Life

Perhaps we are one step closer to explaining life origins naturally. Stanley Miller is famous for performing experiments that produced amino acids naturally. Amino acids are the fundamental building blocks of life on earth today. The atmospheric model he used is today regarded as not representative of that of the early earth, but his experiments still shed light on how life may have originated naturally.

Miller recently died. While going through his effects, sealed vials of material from his original experiment were discovered. They were reanalyzed and found to contain 17 additional amino acids that Miller had not detected as well as 5 amines. His experiment was more successful than he had realized.