Ill answer my own question (from
http://exobio.ucsd.edu/Space_Sciences/OOL.htm).
"We get a lot of questions from students (please see the answer!):
Q) Hi, We are two high school students who are about to do a special work in chemistry. Our work will be to try to remake Stanley Miller's prebiotic experiment from the 1950s when he created the amino-acids. We would be very grateful if you could send us a description of the experiment so that we will be able to remake it.
Q) I'm a student of the 10th year and I and my friends are interested in recreating Stanley Miller's experiment but we don't know the proportions of the gases and the time taken by the experiment.
Q) We are a group of school students, and we would like to do the Stanley Miller experiment on the pre-biotic synthesis of life. One of our problems is safety. We have read that it can blow up with the lab and to avoid that we would like to know what procedures we must follow so that the experience comes out to be a success. Also about security we want to be informed about the proportions of the gases that we must use. Finally I'd like you to be as quick as possible as the school year is about to end. [This latter is a good way to get no answer at all...]
Q) We want to redo Dr. Miller's prebiotic experiment from the 1950s when he created the amino-acids. We would like a description of the experiment so that we can to remake it. We know that the experiment is very dangerous, but we have contact to experts in the area of making glass constructions.
Q) I'm interested in your work and studies about the origins of life on earth. I'm trying to recreate your experiment on synthesis of amino acids by electric discharge. that I can get access to the specific proportions and details of your experiment. I also would like to know if there has been anything new about this important subject.
Q) I am contemplating recreating Miller's experiment for my Senior Thesis, and Synthesis Lab. I need to find out what equipment was used. The dept. wants to find out if the college has the equipment needed for this.
A) I would caution you against trying the experiment in a standard classroom lab. If there is a leak in the glass line you will have made not amino acids but a several thousand dollar glass pipe bomb. A spark discharge experiment requires experience with glass vacuum manifolds, compressed gasses, and anoxic gas transfers. In addition, you will need the glassware (>$1000) and electrical equipment with which to conduct the experiment and the analytical equipment and reagents to analyze the products. (There is little point in going through all the effort of doing the experiment if you cannot determine the chemical results.) If you posses all of these things I recommend you start with the papers listed below (there may many others out there, however, more suited to your specific scientific question so you may need to search further). If you are hungry for an origin of life science project, take a look at the next question for ideas. We strongly discourage attempts to reproduce this experiment at the high-school level and will therefore not furnish any details.
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