There are people out there who think that the creation of life has something to do with divinity (of one kind or another) but the reality is that it’s not all that complicated. Ok, it’s a little complicated and you probably don’t have the equipment at home but the University of Chicago’s Stanley Miller demonstrated in 1953 that you can do it.
- Boil some water to mimic evaporation of the early ocean.
- Add a few gases thought to be present in the early atmosphere.
- Apply a jolt of electricity to simulate lightning.
- Let run for a few days–and you’re left with a brownish soup of amino acids, the building blocks for everything alive on Earth.
Miller however did not recommend that people try it at home. Without proper ventilation you may end up with only a dangerous explosion to show for your efforts.
Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, NASA (including Dr. Bada), and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have found a better, safer way to repeat Miller’s experiments.
The folks at Astrobiology Magazine have all the details and a video. It’s a dry video and, again, you probably don’t have all the lab equipment at home, but you don’t have to be a god either which lowers the bar a bit.