Something Wonderful: Primordial Soup With Julia Child

It's a little early in the season to break out the Madonna and Child.

Posted by Gagdad Bob at November 4, 2009 4:18 PM

God did it without glassware.

Posted by teresa at November 5, 2009 3:59 AM

The experiment produced the building blocks of life in the space of a week. There's something about that timeline...

Posted by Rob De Witt at November 5, 2009 7:37 AM

Teresa, there is a reason why the glassware was needed in the experiment. Put that mix of ingredients into an open system exposed to today's atmosphere, and if the gases didn't disperse immediately the very first millisecond that the spark generator was turned on there would simply be a big bang. Methane in macroscopic amounts is unstable in an atmosphere with oxygen in it.

In addition; the timescale is just a bit different from the original. Eleven orders of magnitude different in fact; a week versus a billion years. Unless, of course, you are a Genesis literalist. In which case, you are utterly impervious to reasoned argument and I have just wasted five minutes of my life.

Posted by Fletcher Christian at November 5, 2009 8:50 AM