Clues to first sparks of life unearthed in classic ’50s experiment

VOLCANOES and lightning may have worked together to produce the first sparks of life on Earth, according to new analysis of classic experiments from the 1950s.

Dr Stanley Miller performed the original “primordial soup” experiment in 1953 while still a doctoral student at the University of Chicago. The experiment is still widely used today in school chemistry labs.

Lightning-like sparks were fired inside a glass flask filled with a “soup” of methane, ammonia, water vapour and hydrogen to simulate conditions on early Earth.