Life originates from volcanoes

The first seeds of life on Earth were formed by the eruption of volcanic lava.

In the 50s of the last century, Stanley Miller, a chemistry student at the University of Chicago (USA), performed an experiment to simulate the process of life formation. He disseminated water and gas molecules in the ancient atmosphere into many sealed containers, then created a spark of electricity (symbolizing the lightning on ancient Earth) and found that the water turned brown later. 6 weeks. Water analysis results showed that amino acids (complex molecules that make up proteins) formed from gas and water molecules in the pots.

Stanley's findings are seen as evidence that the basic structures of life can form from natural processes on our planet.

Recently, Jeffrey Bada, who was a student of Stanley and currently working at Scripps Oceanographic Institute (USA), accidentally saw the pots used in the experiment more than 50 years ago. He decided to redo his experiment, but instead of using water, he introduced steam into a gas molecular container to simulate the physical conditions in the dust cloud of an erupting volcano.

Jeffrey and others discovered 22 amino acids in the bottle, including 10 of which Stanley did not record in his report. The team thinks that modern analytical devices have helped them find 10 amino acids that Stanley failed to detect.

After re-analyzing chemical samples from Stanley's experiment, the team also discovered many other organic compounds.

"In addition to water and CO2, volcanoes also release H and CH ₄ gas. Gas and dust form huge clouds above volcanoes. Collisions between ash and tiny ice particles create carrier particles. Billions of charged particles will create lightning, because the original Earth is still hot after being formed, volcanic eruptions can be very popular, " Jeffrey explained.

In the past 50 years, scientists have changed their views on the elements that once existed in the Earth's atmosphere at an early stage. Stanley used methane (CH ₄ ), hydrogen (H) and ammonia (NH ₃ ) in his experiments, but today chemists believe that carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen ( N) are the dominant atmospheres of the ancient atmosphere.