Theories for the Origins of Life

This experiment was conducted by the scientists:

• Stanley Miller and Harold Urey
• Harold Urey and Albert Einstein
• Louis Pasteur and Francesco Redi
• James Watson and Francis Crick

Which question were the scientists trying to answer with this experiment?

• Where do cells come from?
• How did prokaryotes form cell membranes?
• How are biomolecules formed?
• What gave rise to the Eukaryotic cell?

The gas in the apparatus mimicked? 

• Early oceans
• The void of space
• Fusion reactions of stars
• Early Earth's atmosphere

The electrical sparks mimicked?

• The Sun's energy
• Lightning
• Volcanic eruptions
• Cosmic radiation

What was the product of the Miller-Urey Experiment?

• Simple amino acids
• Simple nucleotides
• Simple lipids
• Simple monosaccarides

Miller/Urey and other scientists have shown that:

•  Life on early Earth required material from space
• Cells survived in the primitive atmosphere
• Amino acids could be produced from inorganic molecules 
• Simple cells can be produced in a laboratory

Which of the following was probably not present in the atmosphere of the primitive Earth? 

• Methane
• Oxygen
• Water
• Carbon dioxide

Which of the following terms is another name for spontaneous generation?

• Abiogenesis
• Biogenesis
• Chemical evolution
• Organic evolution

One of the accepted scientific theories describing the origin of life on Earth is known as chemical evolution. According to this theory, which of the following events would need to occur first for life to evolve? 

• Beginnings of photosynthesis
• Beginnings of genetic material
• Synthesis of organic molecules
• Formation of the plasma membrane 

The idea that Earth's early oceans had organic molecules that became the first life is called the...

• Primordial soup hypothesis
• Bubble hypothesis
• Miller-Urey Experiment
• Radioactive dating theory