Briefly explain the impacts of Miller's experiment on the classical theories of the origin of life.

Briefly explain the impacts of Miller's experiment on the classical theories of the origin of life.

The origin of life through chemical evolution was proved through Miller’s experiment. It was tested by recreating the conditions in the laboratory on a small scale, the conditions which must have existed when life originated on the earth.

Miller through his experiment has proved that life might have accidentally originated from the non-living organic molecules. Miller, an American biologist subjected a gaseous mixture of methane, ammonia, water vapour, and hydrogen in a closed flask at 80°C to electric sparking for a week. This mixture with its temperature, and electric discharge through it, represented a situation that might have prevailed during the early stages of the development of the earth before life came into existence. When the contents of the flask were examined a week later, they were found to have amino acids which are essential for the formation of proteins. As we have said before, proteins are the essential building blocks for living organisms.

Thus with the help of the Millers experiment, the credibility of the Oparin-Haldane theory of chemical evolution greatly increased. Many amino acids have been obtained, since then by this method. So also some sugars and nitrogenous bases which are otherwise found in the nucleus of a cell, which is a unit of living organisms. Miller's experiment thus forms a turning point in our approach to understand the problem of the origin of life on Earth.

The evidence, we get from Miller's experiment, is supported by evidence of similar chemical reactions occurring in space even today. Chemical analysis of a meteorite that fell near Murchi Murchison in Australia, in 1969, showed the presence of organic molecules. These organic molecules were very similar in type to the products that were formed in Miller's experiment.