The discussion centers on simulations aimed at understanding the origins of life on Earth, specifically referencing the Miller-Urey experiment and recent computational studies. Participants mention the use of supercomputers for simulating abiogenesis, highlighting the work of Wang et al. (2014) on the ab initio nanoreactor, which models chemical reactions without predetermined pathways. Additional resources include a paper on modeling abiogenesis in terms of fuel cells and a press release discussing supercomputer simulations of life's origins.
PREREQUISITESResearchers in the fields of chemistry and astrobiology, computational scientists, and anyone interested in the mechanisms of life's origins and the role of simulations in scientific discovery.
Danger mentioned that, and although it was interesting, its not what I was looking for. I was talking about a simulation run on a supercomputer. Its strange no nobody else knows about it. Maybe I misunderstood some article or the writer misunderstood a scientist!jim mcnamara said:It is the Miller-Urey experiment you probably looking for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller–Urey_experiment
Shyan said:Another question. How amino acids can form life?
Shyan said:I remember, a year or two ago, reading about a group which were simulating the early times of Earth's creation and they wanted to see whether life naturally pops out in it. But now I can't find it again or any other news from that group. Does anyone know about such a simulation?
Chemical understanding is driven by the experimental discovery of new compounds and reactivity, and is supported by theory and computation that provide detailed physical insight. Although theoretical and computational studies have generally focused on specific processes or mechanistic hypotheses, recent methodological and computational advances harken the advent of their principal role in discovery. Here we report the development and application of the ab initio nanoreactor—a highly accelerated first-principles molecular dynamics simulation of chemical reactions that discovers new molecules and mechanisms without preordained reaction coordinates or elementary steps. Using the nanoreactor, we show new pathways for glycine synthesis from primitive compounds proposed to exist on the early Earth, which provide new insight into the classic Urey–Miller experiment. These results highlight the emergence of theoretical and computational chemistry as a tool for discovery, in addition to its traditional role of interpreting experimental findings.