Didn't someone make nonorganic matter organic?

[StarshipTitanic]

I remember reading this a long time ago, but I forget where. Am I crazy?

[Admiral Valdemar]

[Shinova]

Well, someone did combine certain substances, heat them or send a spark through them and yes, organic substances formed. I think that's as far as they got so far though.

[StarshipTitanic]

Well, someone did combine certain substances, heat them or send a spark through them and yes, organic substances formed. I think that's as far as they got so far though.

Thanks! Do you have a news link?

[Admiral Valdemar]

You mean the Urey-Miller abiogenesis experiment in the '50s?

[kojikun]

Its possible to take various chemicals (methane, ammonia, water, etc), bombard them with UV and get protocells. Its be found that the same materials in a comet can be caused to form the pre-cell structures required for life, various small capsule-like bubbles with ridgid forms made of carbon-containing chemicals.

[Darth Servo]

As far as Chemists are concerned, the only defining characteristic of "organic" matter is its based on carbon chains. Methane (CH4) is organic.

If you mean "biological" matter, that can be found in any college bio text. Doing a web search mostly brings up creationist pages against it. Go to the local college library.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

On that topic, doesn't a plant make organic matter from two inorganic compunds with photosynthesis, or is my biology teacher wrong?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I remember reading this a long time ago, but I forget where. Am I crazy?

I can do that easily. Organic matter, if you really want to be technical about it, is just matter that is comprised mostly of carbon. So I could take something arguably inorganic, make it react with an organic compound, and have the result be an organic compound. Hence, we go from purely inorganic to organic.

Granted, I don't quite think that was what you had in mind though?

[Darth Servo]

On that topic, doesn't a plant make organic matter from two inorganic compunds with photosynthesis, or is my biology teacher wrong?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is technically an organic compound. Water is debatable. It doesnt' have carbon but it is technically a type of alcohol (it has an -OH group) and Alcohols are generally considered "organic". Those crazy chemists.

Wow, post 666. I'll now go straight to hell.

[Patrick Degan]

It was an experiment conducted at Cornell University sometime in the 70s, in which the basic chemical constituents of organic matter were combined into a spherical chamber and subjected to a continuous electrical charge for several hours (or days). At the end, it was found that the basic chemicals had combined into a "soup" of organic material. It was an attempt to recreate conditions which may have existed in the primordial era, and was featured in an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

Creating living matter was not the object of the experiment, nor did any of the researchers expect any such outcome, BTW.

[StarshipTitanic]

It was an experiment conducted at Cornell University sometime in the 70s, in which the basic chemical constituents of organic matter were combined into a spherical chamber and subjected to a continuous electrical charge for several hours (or days). At the end, it was found that the basic chemicals had combined into a "soup" of organic material. It was an attempt to recreate conditions which may have existed in the primordial era, and was featured in an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

Creating living matter was not the object of the experiment, nor did any of the researchers expect any such outcome, BTW.

That sound familiar. Thanks everyone, though.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Am I crazy?

Most likely.