Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Ok, so I was thinking, if I reconstruct Miller & Urey's experiment (where the products are amino acids and other organic compounds) and inject the product into a plant or even use the product as a substitue for water or mix it with the water, will something happen? All I want to know is if anything could happen to the plant, a yes or no, I want to figure the rest out. Thank You Very Much

I'm in desperate need of help on this one!

Hi,

I'm not an expert in this area, so I did a search on "amino acids in Miller & Urey's experiment" and found encyclopedia articles. I learned that 11 out of 20 amino acids were created, which are relevant to making proteins in living cells, glycine being most abundant. The Wikipedia says that, "Sugars, liquids, and some of the building blocks for nucleic acids were also formed."

As for "injecting" plants directly with amino acids and glycine, you might search for "using glycine as a fertilizer" or "using amino acids as a fertilizer"

Sounds like a great experiment to try.

Bill

thank you very much!

Also, one more thing: is it possible to do an applied research on rats doing this experiment? Maybe have like a local university help me out with a lab? See if it's beneficial to both plants and animals or just one?

I'm not familiar with the project rules for animal studies, so I selected "Project Guide" in the Science Buddies menu. After not finding an obvious topic, I typed "animal" in the search box. I found these guidelines --

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... mals.shtml

Please do consult with your teacher and perhaps post a new topic on the forum, so you can receive more guidance if you wish.

Bill

So if I go to a local university, that is if they let me, that has "a regulated research institution" I can then go ahead with my experiment because it involves needles causing momentary stress and pain, right?

It's just that I like topics like this, performing studies on plants and animals, seeing the causes and effects. I really don't mean to sound sinister at all.

I really do not want to discourage you, but I think you need to do a lot more background research before you consider approaching a university with this idea.

First of all, Urey and Miller used some very extreme conditions in their experiment--how do you plan to replicate those? Moreover, why would you want to? Research that has been done since their seminal experiment suggests that the atmosphere of the cooling earth was very different than what it was thought to be at the time of that experiment. To my knowledge, the 'new' conditions do not give the same results in experiments like theirs.

In order to get permission to do animal studies at a university, you need to write an approximately 20-page justification for your experiment, stating exactly what you are going to do, why what you are going to do is important, and how it will benefit society and science. Without a much better idea of what you are trying to find and what you expect to see, I do not think an IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) would approve this project.

Again, I am sorry that I do not have better news, but I also do not want you to get your hopes up and contact someone thinking that they would be happy to help you with this experiment. If you are still interested in the project, I would highly recommend doing some more research on the original experiment.