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The Man Behind the Origins of Life

May 23, 2007

Stanley Miller, who pioneered the study of how amino acids could arise from the earth's early, lifeless atmosphere, died of heart failure Sunday at 77. Published in 1953 when he was still in graduate school, Miller's labwork found that several amino acids were formed by pushing an electric current through certain elemental gases, an experiment that simulated lightning coursing through the early atmosphere and creating the basic building blocks of life.

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