July 27, 2011
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Did Life Evolve in Ice?
Funky properties of frozen water may have made life possible.
From the February 2008 issue; published online February 1, 2008
Read the whole thing CLICK HERE
One morning in late 1997, Stanley Miller lifted a glass vial from a cold, bubbling vat. For 25 years he had tended the vial as though it were an exotic orchid, checking it daily, adding a few pellets of dry ice as needed to keep it at –108 degrees Fahrenheit. He had told hardly a soul about it. Now he set the frozen time capsule out to thaw, ending the experiment that had lasted more than one-third of his 68 years.
Miller had filled the vial in 1972 with a mixture of ammonia and cyanide, chemicals that scientists believe existed on early Earth and may have contributed to the rise of life. He had then cooled the mix to the temperature of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa—too cold, most scientists had assumed, for much of anything to happen. Miller disagreed. Examining the vial in his laboratory at the University of California at San Diego, he was about to see who was right.
As Miller and his former student Jeffrey Bada brushed the frost from the vial that morning, they could see that something had happened. The mixture of ammonia and cyanide, normally colorless, had deepened to amber, highlighting a web of cracks in the ice. Miller nodded calmly, but Bada exclaimed in shock. It was a color that both men knew well—the color of complex polymers made up of organic molecules. Tests later confirmed Miller’s and Bada’s hunch. Over a quarter-century, the frozen ammonia-cyanide blend had coalesced into the molecules of life: nucleobases, the building blocks of RNA and DNA, and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The vial’s contents would support a new account of how life began on Earth and would arouse both surprise and skepticism around the world.
Thoughts???
Comments (8)
No comment.
heathen! burn her at the stakes~~~~~~~~ grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr witch hunting time
@BenelliMan - you made me smile
Interesting. I still like the idea of life evolving in ocean foam, but hey…
@Kristenmomof3 - it’s my job n i luvs it
I remember reading about this in my xenobiology seminar. That’s why Europa is my favorite part of our Solar System. The idea that it could have life has entranced me since I read Arthur C Clarke’s 2061, which describes deep sea vents creating oases for life in Europa’s frigid waters.
Bad ass.
Life is resilient. It can evolve in so many more conditions than we look for when looking for life on other planets. But because humans are egocentric, we tend to think that life can only evolve in the conditions that created us. It’s a pretty silly notion.