1. What would count as evidence of a model of the “Organic Soup” Model?
A scientific model = “The generation of a physical, conceptual, or mathmatical representation of a real phenomenon that is difficult to observe directly” Encyclopaedia Britannica

2. How would you design an experiment to test this model?
1. What are the necessary components of the experiment?
2. What would you need to control for?
3. Would kind of data would you collect?
4. What kind of observations would you make?
5. How would your results support (or not support) this model?

3. The Miller-Urey Experiment 1953

4. Another Model: Chemical reactions on Solid Surfaces
Some scientists ruled out the “organic soup” model as they learned more about the conditions of the early atmosphere
However, there is one place on Earth that may have had conditions similar to those in the Miller-Urey hypothesis:
hydrothermal vents!
Not enough ammonia in the atmosphere for the organic soup model, but there is near hydrothermal vents
These vents also are deep below the ocean’s surface, so the temperature is more stable and conditions are less hostile

6. Simple organic molecules can be made
Experiments have shown that at hydrothermal vents:
Ammonia can be made
Simple organic molecules can be made
Simple organic molecules can form simple proteins, sugars, and nitrogenous bases
How is the the hydrothermal vent hypothesis different from the “organic soup” hypothesis?

7. A related model: All organisms on Earth share a common ancestral origin of life

8. What would count as evidence of this model?
All organisms on Earth share a common ancestral origin of life
Possible Evidence:
Molecular building blocks common to all life forms (amino acids, monosaccharides, nucleotides, fatty acids)
Common genetic code
Descent with modification
Commonalities in cell structure (plasma membrane, cytosol)

9. All organisms on Earth share a common ancestral origin of life
How is this possible?...