Lonelygirl15

The concept that life began in a primordial soup on the early Earth was proposed by Oparin and Haldane in the 1920s. However, how the organic compounds in the soup could have been synthesized on the early Earth was first experimentally demonstrated in spring of 1953 during a seminar given by Stanley in Kent Hall at the University of Chicago. In the audience were some of our century's greatest scientists, who had come to the University as part of the Manhattan project and stayed on after the war.

Only the most distinguished scientists, many who either had or would eventually be awarded Nobel prizes, were usually invited to present these distinguished Department of Chemistry seminars. To have a 23-year-old graduate student give one was unprecedented. Nonetheless, the room was full because the word had spread that some new Earth-shaking results were going to be presented. Needless to say, Stanley was a bit nervous.

The news that Stanley reported is of course now world famous-passing an electric spark through a sealed glass apparatus containing a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor had resulted in the synthesis of some of the amino acids found in proteins. Perhaps, he suggested, this was how organic compounds were made on the ancient Earth before life existed.

While Stanley was confident of his results, the rows of famous faces in his audience were, to say the least, intimidating. He was bombarded with questions. Were the analyses done correctly? Could there have been contamination?

James Arnold, who is now an emeritus professor at the University of California at San Diego, was in the fourth row. He remembers sitting between two other chemistry professors who - before the lecture - were convinced that what Stanley was going to report was either an artifact or caused by contamination. After the lecture they sat in silence, unable to find any flaws in what Stanley had done.