Attempts for Abiogenic Synthesis of Organic Compounds
Section 1.4. In the second half of the XX century the interest towards the
initial origination of living matter has increased. It became clear that the key
to the solution of this problem is the discovery of the conditions and
prerequisites that have led to the formation of the initial organic
compounds. That is why the efforts of researchers in that field were
conducted in view of performing laboratory experiments for the synthesis of
organic compounds from inorganic ones under conditions resembling those
in the prebiological earth atmosphere.
The first successful experiment for such a synthesis has been carried out
by Stanley Miller at the University of Chicago, USA (Miller, 1953). With this
experiment he actually confirmed Oparin’s idea (Oparin, 1936, 1938)
developed by Bernal (1951) and Urey (1952) that prebiotic atmosphere had
contained methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), molecular hydrogen (H₂) and water
(H₂O), instead of carbon dioxide (CO₂), molecular nitrogen (N₂) and oxygen
(O₂) as it was thought before. In the device constructed for the purpose (Fig.
1–5) Miller has subjected to the action of continuous electric discharges for a
week a permanently circulating gaseous mixture of definite quantities of CH₄,
NH₃, H₂ and water heated till boiling.
The obtained compounds have accumulated in the water phase and by
gas chromatography have been identified as glycine, α- and β-alanine,