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| Chapter 2. Miller’s Experiment And Other Origin Of Life Experiments C. Miller’s Experiment, The Results: 85% Tar 8% Formic Acid (bee sting venom) 0.5% Acetic Acid (vinegar) 3% Other non amino acid organic compounds 2% Glycine (a water-repelling amino acid) 1.7% Alanine (a water-repelling amino acid) 0.02% Glutamic Acid (a water-attracting amino acid with negative charge) 0.02% Aspartic Acid (a water-attracting amino acid with negative charge) < 0.002% Other, trace amino acids (Percentages represent the relative masses or weights of the products formed, not the ratio of the numbers of molecules formed.) Notice, far more tar was made than anything else. This tar collected on the sides of the spark chamber, away from contact with the spark. Otherwise, the spark would have ripped the components of the tar apart and changed them back into their original or even yet smaller molecules faster than new, replacement molecules could form. What was in the tar? Miller said it was too complicated to analyze. It was a sticky goo of an unorganized, unspecified, unreacting mass of organic chemicals produced by his experiment; he called it tar. We will follow his example and call any similar products of an origin-of-life experiment tar. From the chart we see that about eight times as much tar was produced as everything else put together. Actually, the other listed products were on their way to being added to the tar goo, too. However, Miller designed a trap into his apparatus to remove these products before anything happened to them. It was only Miller’s expertise and insights as a biochemist that allowed him to extract even the small percentage of useful products that he did. Under truly natural conditions one would expect that all of his product eventually would have either turned to tar or have been ripped apart. One would not expect an accumulation of amino acids to build up. This is contrary to the claims of those who like to talk about the existence of a rich, pre-life soup full of amino acids and other complex molecules ready to be assembled into a living system of some sort. Continuing down Miller’s list, we see that the next highest product was formic acid at 8%. This is significant, because as we shall see in our discussion on Roadblocks 2. and 3., formic acid easily ruins progress towards getting an enzyme. What is formic acid? It is the major component of bee sting venom. In the experiment it was formed from a single molecule of methane which had been forcefully joined with two water molecules in a certain manner by energy from the spark. Notice, formic acid is needed in order to make amino acids, yet it interferes with amino acids making enzymes. This will be discussed in detail later on. Acetic acid (vinegar) was also detected. Finally, there were also a number of other organic compounds formed that we will not bother to list. Next, we see the amino acids that Miller produced in significant quantities. The results are repeated here: 2% Glycine (water-repelling) 1.7% Alanine (water-repelling) 0.02% Glutamic Acid (water-attracting with negative charge) 0.02% Aspartic Acid (water-attracting with negative charge) < 0.002% Other, trace amino acids Notice the ratios between the various kinds of amino acids. Glycine at 2.0% and alanine at 1.7% are very close to each other. Also, notice that alanine and glycine are labeled as water-repelling amino acids. This is very significant, as we shall see later. Next, we find glutamic acid listed at 0.02%. Thus, only one glutamic acid molecule was produced for every one hundred glycine molecules. Aspartic acid is also at 0.02%, so it, too, has only one one-hundredth the occurrence of glycine. Glutamic acid and Aspartic acid are water-attracting amino acids and both have positive charge. The ratio of 100 times as many water-repelling amino acids as there are water-attracting amino acids presents a problem when one tries to construct an enzyme with the products of Miller’s experiment (or any similar experiments for that matter.) Likewise, the appearance of only positively –charged amino acids with absolutely no negatively-charged amino acids to balance accumulated charges will present another major problem. These things will be discussed in detail later on. The final entry on the list is particularly significant. Miller produced many other amino acids than the four listed. However, they were in such small portions compared to glycine that they effectively did not exist. All of the unnamed remaining amino acids were so dilute that there would be over 1,000 glycine molecules for each one of them produced. For many, there would have been over a million glycine molecules for each of them produced. There are many people who speculate that the laws of science favor a spontaneous origin of life. These people implicitly assume that these products appearing naturally in an origin-of-life scenario will randomly combine with each other to produce ever larger molecules. Furthermore, given enough time, such random combinations will provide all of the various components and organization required to form a living cell. However, this is only an assumption. When one actually analyzes the difficulties that would need to be overcome for this to take place, he finds the task becomes insurmountable. In the next chapter, we will look at a series of fatal roadblocks against a natural formation of life. It is the combined effect of all of the roadblocks which becomes overwhelming. Although biologists are typically aware of these issues, they tend to think of them as isolated issues, ignore them, and blindly hope that they will go away. However, in real life we find that as we learn more and more about biochemistry, we find more and more roadblocks making their appearance. Roadblocks are not being removed by increased knowledge, they are increasing in number. Furthermore, their combined effects are becoming greater and greater, not lessened. |