Stanley Miller
Stanley Lloyd Miller (born March 7, 1930 in Oakland , California , † May 20, 2007 in National City , California) was an American biologist and chemist . He is considered a pioneer in the search for the origin of life. The Miller experiment (also Miller-Urey experiment) is named after him, one of the most famous experiments in science.
Career
Miller studied at the University of California at Berkeley and later at the University of Chicago . He carried out the famous Miller experiment in 1953 as part of his doctorate (subject: A production of organic compounds under possible primitive earth conditions ) with Harold Urey , who suggested it. In 1954 he received his doctorate .
After a year at the California Institute of Technology (1954–1955) Miller worked at Columbia University until 1960 . Since 1960 he has been a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at San Diego , where he continued to study the biochemical basis of the origin of life.
In 1973 Miller was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .
The Miller experiment
Miller and Urey recreated the assumed methane-containing primordial atmosphere and the primordial ocean of early Earth in a test apparatus and exposed them to electrical discharges that simulated lightning . After only one week, a significant portion (approx. 15%) of the methane had been converted into other organic compounds , including several amino acids found in proteins . This was the first proof that basic biological building blocks can be generated under possible ( abiotic ) natural environmental conditions.
This result was the starting point for many similar experiments that have been carried out since then. In the meantime it has been shown that important building blocks of life are also produced in atmospheres with a different composition that are less chemically reducing or even neutral, as is sometimes assumed for the primordial atmosphere today. Although the yield is generally lower under such conditions, on the other hand, biomolecules are often produced that were not detected in the original experiment by Miller and Urey. The production of organic molecules has now been proven even under simulated space conditions.
Publications (selection)
- Stanley L. Miller: A Production of Amino Acids under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions . In: Science . Volume 117, No. 3046, May 15, 1953.
- SL Miller, HC Urey: Organic Compound Synthesis on the Primitive Earth . In: Science . Volume 130, 1959, p. 245.
- KE Nelson, M. Levy, SL Miller: Peptide nucleic acids rather than RNA may have been the first genetic molecule . In: PNAS . Volume 97, 2000, pp. 3868-3871.
literature
- Sven P. Thoms: Origin of Life . Fischer, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-596-16128-2 .
Web links
- From Primordial Soup to the Prebiotic Beach - An interview with exobiology pioneer, Dr. Stanley L. Miller, University of California San Diego ( October 11, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Downloadable films in which Miller explains his experiment
- The Miller experiment for the abiotic synthesis of amino acids under the conditions of the primordial earth
- "Stanley Miller, Who Examined Origins of Life, this at 77" , New York Times , May 23, 2007
- The cook of the artificial primeval soup is dead , Tagesspiegel , May 25, 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Stanley Lloyd Miller at academictree.org, accessed on January 3 of 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Miller, Stanley |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Miller, SL; Miller, Stanley L .; Miller, Stanley Lloyd (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American biologist and chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 7, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oakland , California |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 2007 |
| Place of death | National City , California |