A closer look
In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey decided to play God in a basement laboratory by recreating what they thought was the early Earth. They filled a sterilized glass flask with a toxic, unbreathable mix of methane, ammonia, and hydrogen, then zapped it with continuous 60,000-volt sparks to simulate relentless primordial lightning. After a week, the clear water inside turned into a murky, brown sludge. They hadn't created a monster, but they had spontaneously generated amino acids—the fundamental building blocks of proteins. It was the first concrete proof that life’s complex chemistry likely emerged from a violent, lifeless puddle.
