THE atmosphere on primitive Earth was much richer in hydrogen than previously thought and could have been the source of the molecules that led to early life, a new analysis shows. The study lends credence to the long-standing suggestion that lightning in early Earth’s atmosphere helped form these prebiotic molecules.
In a classic experiment in 1953, American chemist Stanley Miller produced amino acids by zapping electricity through a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water, which he thought mimicked the composition of Earth’s early atmosphere. Even a mixture low in methane and ammonia, but rich in hydrogen gave rise to…
