In volcanoes, it is

2008/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biokimika
• Eboluzioa

Perhaps in the clouds of volcanoes appeared the first organic molecules on Earth. Two geochemists, former students of Stanley Miller, have come to this conclusion by reviewing the jars of his famous experiment.

Miller attempted to explain in 1953 how the first organic particles were formed on Earth. In some jars he repeated the supposed atmospheric conditions of that time and provoked lightning with the help of electrodes. In the jars various organic components were formed, such as the five amino acids present in the proteins of the living.

However, it did not get too much acceptance among scientists, as experts consider it increasingly safer that the atmosphere of the time did not have the composition proposed by Miller. They say Miller used more hydrogen than there was.

The aforementioned geochemicals analyzed the contents of the jars with a very sensitive tool -- a mass spectrometer from NASA -- and verified that in that experiment five no, twenty-two amino acids were formed.

Somehow they wanted to explain the appearance of so many organic molecules in Miller's experiment, considering that it was almost impossible that at that time there was the atmosphere proposed by him. They have stated that Miller's conditions could be in the clouds of gas formed by volcanoes so abundant then on Earth, and that its components have been formed in specific restricted areas.