Life's Beginnings

In a quick break from SVP, just thought I'd mention an interesting article in Science that appeared on the 16th. Apparently, two fo Stanley Miller's students were going through his lab after his death and found a couple of samples fom his famous experiment on the creation of organic molecules in the primordial soup and decided to retest them. They found double the number of amino acids that Miller found 50 years ago. 22 amino acids were found, including all 20 of the ones used by living organisms today. They did note that the atmosphere back then did not have as much hydrogen as in Miller's experiment, but it did exist at those levels around volcanic outlets, prompting the idea that time and volcanoes may have helped spur the creation of life on Earth.