From: invalide@invalid.invalid   
      
   This is a HUGE shot in the arm for M-U...   
   and exo biology   
      
   https://scitechdaily.com/tiny-sparks-big-discovery-could-water-d   
   oplets-have-created-life/   
   MARCH 14, 2025   
      
   Life may not have started with a dramatic   
   lightning bolt striking the ocean. Instead,   
   tiny “microlightning” sparks generated by   
   water droplets from crashing waves and   
   waterfalls may have played a key role.   
      
   New research from Stanford University   
   reveals that when water is sprayed into a   
   mixture of gases resembling Earth’s early   
   atmosphere, it can produce organic molecules   
   containing carbon-nitrogen bonds. These   
   molecules include uracil, a fundamental   
   component of DNA and RNA.   
      
   Published today (March 14) in Science   
   Advances, the study provides fresh support   
   for the long-debated Miller-Urey hypothesis,   
   which suggests that life began with a   
   lightning strike. This idea originated from   
   a 1952 experiment demonstrating that organic   
   compounds could form when electricity   
   interacted with water and inorganic gases.   
      
   However, the latest findings suggest that   
   electricity wasn’t necessarily required.   
   The researchers discovered that water   
   droplets naturally generate tiny electrical   
   charges, creating the same organic molecules   
   without the need for an external energy   
   source.   
      
   “Microelectric discharges between oppositely   
   charged water microdroplets make all the   
   organic molecules observed previously in the   
   Miller-Urey experiment, and we propose that   
   this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic   
   synthesis of molecules that constitute the   
   building blocks of life,” said senior author   
   Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur   
   Professor of Natural Science and professor   
   of chemistry in Stanford’s School of   
   Humanities and Sciences.   
   ...   
   How these biological components came about   
   has long puzzled scientists, and the   
   Miller-Urey experiment provided one possible   
   explanation: that lightning striking into the   
   ocean and interacting with early planet gases   
   like methane, ammonia, and hydrogen could   
   create these organic molecules. Critics of   
   that theory have pointed out that lightning is   
   too infrequent and the ocean too large and   
   dispersed for this to be a realistic cause.   
   ...   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)