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Science 17 October 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5900, p. 404
DOI: 10.1126/science.1161527
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Brevia

The Miller Volcanic Spark Discharge Experiment

Adam P. Johnson,1 H. James Cleaves,2 Jason P. Dworkin,3 Daniel P. Glavin,3 Antonio Lazcano,4 Jeffrey L. Bada5*

Miller's 1950s experiments used, besides the apparatus known in textbooks, one that generated a hot water mist in the spark flask, simulating a water vapor-rich volcanic eruption. We found the original extracts of this experiment in Miller's material and reanalyzed them. The volcanic apparatus produced a wider variety of amino acids than the classic one. Release of reduced gases in volcanic eruptions accompanied by lightning could have been common on the early Earth. Prebotic compounds synthesized in these environments could have locally accumulated, where they could have undergone further processing.

1 Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA.
2 Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
3 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar System Exploration Division, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
4 Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacionale Autónoma de México, Mexico Distrito Federal 04510, Mexico.
5 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093–0212, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jbada{at}ucsd.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)