This is a HUGE shot in the arm for M-U...
and exo biology
https://scitechdaily.com/tiny-sparks-big-discovery-could-water-droplets-have-created-life/
MARCH 14, 2025
Life may not have started with a dramatic
lightning bolt striking the ocean. Instead,
tiny “microlightning” sparks generated by
water droplets from crashing waves and
waterfalls may have played a key role.
New research from Stanford University
reveals that when water is sprayed into a
mixture of gases resembling Earth’s early
atmosphere, it can produce organic molecules
containing carbon-nitrogen bonds. These
molecules include uracil, a fundamental
component of DNA and RNA.
Published today (March 14) in Science
Advances, the study provides fresh support
for the long-debated Miller-Urey hypothesis,
which suggests that life began with a
lightning strike. This idea originated from
a 1952 experiment demonstrating that organic
compounds could form when electricity
interacted with water and inorganic gases.
However, the latest findings suggest that
electricity wasn’t necessarily required.
The researchers discovered that water
droplets naturally generate tiny electrical
charges, creating the same organic molecules
without the need for an external energy
source.
“Microelectric discharges between oppositely
charged water microdroplets make all the
organic molecules observed previously in the
Miller-Urey experiment, and we propose that
this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic
synthesis of molecules that constitute the
building blocks of life,” said senior author
Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur
Professor of Natural Science and professor
of chemistry in Stanford’s School of
Humanities and Sciences.
...
How these biological components came about
has long puzzled scientists, and the
Miller-Urey experiment provided one possible
explanation: that lightning striking into the
ocean and interacting with early planet gases
like methane, ammonia, and hydrogen could
create these organic molecules. Critics of
that theory have pointed out that lightning is
too infrequent and the ocean too large and
dispersed for this to be a realistic cause.
...
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