Experiments: basic research on living systems, not technology.
Also: Stanley Miller, Harold Urey, spark discharge experiment, prebiotic chemistry, primordial soup
In 1953 Stanley Miller, working in Harold Urey's laboratory, sent electric sparks through a mixture of gases meant to resemble Earth's early atmosphere and found that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, formed on their own. It became the founding experiment of prebiotic chemistry.
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Miller reported that electric discharges through methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapour, a mixture meant to mimic the primitive atmosphere, produced amino acids.
As reported in: Miller (1953). A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions. Science. doi:10.1126/science.117.3046.528
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Johnson and colleagues found Miller's stored extracts from a lesser-known version of his 1950s experiment that added a hot water mist to simulate a steamy volcanic eruption with lightning. Reanalysed, it had produced a wider variety of amino acids than the classic set-up.
As reported in: Johnson, Cleaves, Dworkin et al. (2008). The Miller Volcanic Spark Discharge Experiment. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1161527
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