26 Oct '08 00:22>
This is an interesting link to a wikipedia entry on the famous Miller-Urey experiment that looked at the generation of biomolecules from simple reactants, thought to be present on the early earth, namely ammonia, carbon monooxide, methane, hydrogen, water and also simulating the conditions of lightning.
Re-analysis of the vials used in the original experiments, using modern sensitive techniques, has shown a much richer diversity of amino acids was created than previously thought, some 22 in all, as opossed to the five originally detected.
These new results provide new evidence for the abiogenesis hypothesis (for the origin of life) that biological molecules can readily form from simple organic and inorganic reactants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment
Re-analysis of the vials used in the original experiments, using modern sensitive techniques, has shown a much richer diversity of amino acids was created than previously thought, some 22 in all, as opossed to the five originally detected.
These new results provide new evidence for the abiogenesis hypothesis (for the origin of life) that biological molecules can readily form from simple organic and inorganic reactants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment