Comments on: The Miller-Urey Experiment Revisited

By: Eagle1600

Eagle1600 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:14:50 +0000

Miller Urey experiment ignored many conditions in the atmosphere that would breakdown the chemical synthesis they did achieve e.g. cytosine – has no chemical pathway during earth’s primordial past, the gases Miller relies upon – consume the chemicals that create this necessary component of nucleic acids. Ribose, phosphate compounds also create problems in Miller’s scenario.

By: Eagle1600

Eagle1600 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:58:58 +0000

deep sea hyrdothermal vents would actually inhibit life formation. Experiments show that amino acids could form in these vents but only have a a half life of a few minutes – some sugars last only a few seconds. No RNA/DNA, peptide formation – and, worse, ammonia can not exist in levels necessary for life in these vents. What characteristics of these vents that would allow life – also destroys life. Schoonen, Xu – Astrobiology 1, (2001) pg 122-123.

By: Desdenova

Desdenova — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:17:47 +0000

The creationist claim that an oxygen rich atmosphere invalidates Miller’s evidence for abiogenesis is based on a ( likely intentional ) misreading of a 2004 paper titled ” U-rich Archaean sea-floor sediments from Greenland – indications of >3700 Ma oxygenic photosynthesis. ”

The paper discusses the transportation of uranium through oxygen rich water 3.7 billion years ago, indicating that photosynthetic organisms existed some 200 million years earlier than previously believed. Instead of invalidating the experiment, the paper only pushes the origin of life back a little, geologically speaking.

Lacking valid peer reviewed alternatives, the creationist community simply relied on one of their usual tactics, misrepresentation, to create yet another straw man in their unflagging efforts to discredit the truth of evolution.

Back to the drawing board for the creationists.

By: volcanogodless

volcanogodless — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:14:02 +0000

While a fascinating experiment, it has since been proven that the primordial Earth’s atmosphere was CO2 and repetition of the Miller-Urey experiment under these conditions yielded no results.

back to the drawing board….

By: Tempscire

Tempscire — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:07:02 +0000

They didn’t even clean out the tubes before packing them up? :p

By: issacsullivan

issacsullivan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:33:04 +0000

I bet there would be lots of lifeforms on anything I packed away for 30 years.

By: su.wei

su.wei — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:53:46 +0000

sure it passes as science! but they need to reproduce the experiment. something im sure they’re going to do.

soooper exciting.

By: Edward

Edward — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:49:16 +0000

They are not reproducing the experiment? Just testing stuff that has sat around for years? While interesting, I do not think this passes as science.

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:01:03 +0000

I remember reading a report about this in National Geographic magazine. It was truely fascinating.