On 16/12/2024 06:10, MarkE wrote:
I've raised Steven Benner's "tar paradox" in a recent post; it
subsequently occurred to me that the Miller-Urey experiment is,
ironically, a demonstration of this (I've mentioned this in a another
thread, but thought it deserved a separate post). Miller-Urey produced
only unusable small/trace amounts of amino acids in a "tar" mixture:
Breakdown of products:
* Carboxylic Acids (e.g., formic acid, acetic acid, and succinic acid):
These dominated the product mix, typically making up 80-90% of the total organic compounds.
Not tar. I found a Miller & Urey paper.
* Hydroxy Acids (e.g., lactic acid and glycolic acid): Accounted for
5-10% of the total.
Not tar.
* Amino Acids: Typically contributed about 1-2% of the total organic
product yield.
Not tar. Also the numbers you give below add up to ~4.5%. The number
from a Miller and Urey paper I found give an every larger proportion (by
mole) of amino acids, and carboxylic acids in the 50-60% range.
* Other Organic Molecules: Small amounts of urea, nitriles, aldehydes,
and hydrocarbons were also formed, constituting the remainder of the products.
Not tar.
Relative concentrations of amino acids produced:
- Glycine: Approximately 2.1% of the total yield
- Alanine: Around 1.7%
- β-Alanine: About 0.76%
- Aspartic Acid: Approximately 0.024%
- Glutamic Acid: Around 0.051%
I had thought that the Miller-Urey experiment did produce appreciable quantities of tar. Was I mistaken?
--
alias Ernest Major
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