Stanley Miller facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stanley Miller
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Miller in 1999
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Stanley Lloyd Miller
March 7, 1930 Oakland, California, U.S.
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| Died | May 20, 2007 (aged 77) |
| Alma mater | University of California at Berkeley |
| Known for | Abiogenesis |
| Awards | Oparin Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Chicago Columbia University University of California, San Diego |
| Doctoral advisor | Harold Urey |
| Doctoral students | Jeffrey Bada |
Stanley Lloyd Miller (March 7, 1930 – May 20, 2007) was an American chemist. He did important experiments about the origin of life. He showed that many key organic compounds can be made from simple inorganic substances.
In 1952, he performed the Miller–Urey experiment. This experiment proved that complex organic molecules could be created from simpler, non-living chemicals. His work was widely known. It supported the idea that the early Earth's chemical changes could have naturally created organic compounds from non-living materials.
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Life and Early Career
Stanley Miller was born in Oakland, California. His parents were Nathan and Edith Miller. They came from Jewish families in Belarus and Latvia. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a teacher. Education was very important in their family.
When he was in Oakland High School, people called him "a chem whiz" because he was so good at chemistry. He went to the University of California at Berkeley to study chemistry. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1951.
He then went to the University of Chicago for his PhD. He was looking for a research topic. He attended a seminar by Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey. Urey talked about how the solar system formed. He also discussed how organic chemicals might have formed on early Earth. Miller was very inspired by this idea.
Miller convinced Urey to let him study how electric sparks in gases could create chemicals. He found that amino acids were produced in his experiments. Amino acids are the building blocks of life. This showed that many "organic" chemicals could be made from non-living processes. Miller earned his doctorate in 1954.
After his PhD, Miller worked at the California Institute of Technology. Then he joined Columbia University in New York. In 1960, he became a professor at the new University of California at San Diego.
The Miller-Urey Experiment
Miller's experiment was described in the science magazine Science in 1953. This paper changed how scientists thought about the origin of life. It made it a topic that could be studied through experiments.
His study became a classic example of how life might have started. It was the first clear experimental proof for the ""primordial soup" theory." This theory was proposed by Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane.
Urey and Miller designed their experiment to copy the conditions of early Earth. They used a continuous stream of steam. They mixed it with methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), and hydrogen (H2). This gas mixture was then exposed to electric sparks. These sparks were like lightning on early Earth.
After one week, Miller found amino acids had formed. These included glycine and alanine. Amino acids are the basic parts that make up living cells. The experiment showed that life's building blocks could form naturally on Earth.
Publishing the Results
Miller showed his results to Urey. Urey thought they should publish the findings right away. Urey did not want to be a co-author. He wanted Miller to get all the credit.
Miller sent his paper to Science magazine in February 1953. There was a delay in publishing it. Urey became frustrated and asked for the paper back. He then sent it to another journal. However, Science decided to publish it after all. Miller then withdrew it from the other journal.
Continuing the Research
Miller kept working on his research until he passed away in 2007. As scientists learned more about Earth's early atmosphere, he improved his experiments. He used better ways to analyze chemicals.
He successfully made more types of amino acids. He also produced many other organic and inorganic compounds. These compounds are important for cells and how they work. Other scientists also confirmed his findings.
Later research suggested that Earth's early atmosphere might have been different. It might have been more neutral, not as "reducing." Miller's last work, published after he died in 2008, still showed that organic compounds could form under these new conditions.
Later Discoveries
In 1972, Miller and his team repeated the 1953 experiment. They used new, advanced chemical tools. They found 33 different amino acids. Ten of these are found naturally in living things. These included all the main amino acids found in the Murchison meteorite. This meteorite fell in Australia in 1969.
Just before Miller died, scientists found boxes of old samples in his lab. A note said some were from his original 1952-1954 experiments. Others were from 1958. The 1958 samples included hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the gas mixture. These results had never been published.
In 2008, his students re-analyzed the 1952 samples. They used very sensitive techniques. They found 22 amino acids and 5 amines. This showed that Miller's original experiment made many more compounds than he reported in 1953. The un-published 1958 samples were analyzed in 2011. They found 23 amino acids and 4 amines, including 7 compounds with sulfur.
Death
Stanley Miller had several strokes starting in 1999. These made it harder for him to move around. He was living in a nursing home in National City, California. He died on May 20, 2007, at a nearby hospital. He was survived by his brother Donald and his family, and his partner Maria Morris.
Honors and Awards
Miller is remembered for his work on the origin of life. He was seen as a pioneer in exobiology, the study of life beyond Earth. He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1973.
He received the Oparin Medal in 1983. This award is from the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. He was also the president of this society from 1986 to 1989. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once.
The Stanley L. Miller Award was created in 2008. It is given to scientists younger than 37 who study the origin of life.
See also
In Spanish: Stanley Miller para niños
- Abiogenesis
- Alexander Oparin
- Biochemistry
- Microsphere
- Proteinoid
- Sidney W. Fox
- Antonio Lazcano
- Joan Oró
