Question

The experiment conducted by Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Drey in $1953$ to show how organic molecule arise in nature, they assembled an atmosphere consisted of:
A) Ammonia, methane and oxygen
B) Ammonia, hydrogen and oxygen
C) Ammonia, hydrogen and methane
D) Methane, hydrogen sulphide and oxygen

Answer 1

The only way to solve this question is if we have information about the different theories of origin of life. Go through your textbook regarding different theories of origin of life, and specifically read the experiment conducted by Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Drey in $1953$ This was the first experiment done in order to prove the theories established by previous scientists.
Given: Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Drey in $1953$ conducted an experiment to show how organic molecules arise in nature.

Complete step-by-step answer: While doing graduate work under Harold Urey at University of Chicago, Stanley Miller conducted the first experimental test of the Oparin chemical evolutionary model. Miller circulated gas mixture of a methane $(C{{H}_{4}})$ , ammonia $N{{H}_{3}}$ , water vapor ${{H}_{2}}O$ ,hydrogen ${{H}_{2}}$ through glass vessel containing electrical discharge chamber. Miller seeded a high voltage charge of electricity into the chamber through a tungsten filament in an attempt to simulate the effect of UV light on prebiotic atmospheric gaseous.
Then after two day, Miller found a $2$ percent yield of the Amino Acid in a U-shaped water trap he used for collecting reaction products at the bottom of the vessel. While Miller's initial experiment yielded only three of twenty amino acids that occur naturally in proteins, subsequent experiments performed under similar conditions have produced all but one of the others. Other simulation experiments have produced fatty acids as well as nucleotide bases found in DNA along with RNA, but not sugar molecules deoxyribose as well as ribose necessary in order to build DNA and RNA molecules.

Hence, the correct answer is C i.e. they assembled an atmosphere consisted of Ammonia, hydrogen and methane.

Note: After Darwin published the Origin of Species in $1859$ many scientists began to think about a problem that Darwin had not addressed, namely, how life had arisen in the first place. While Darwin's theory purported to explain how life could have grown gradually more complex starting from "one or a few simple forms," it did not explain nor did it attempt to explain life had first originated.