Self-study
In an experiment designed to show how life may have begun on Earth, scientists demonstrated that an electrical spark—or lightning—could produce amino acids, the building blocks of Earth's life. ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
How could lightning have produced the first amino acids on Earth, even though Earth’s atmosphere at that time had a lot of oxygen, and amino acids break apart unless the spark that produced them occurs in an atmosphere that has a lot of hydrogen and not much oxygen (a “reducing” atmosphere)?
Objective
The correct answer should explain how there still could have been a “reducing” atmosphere necessary to allow the first amino acids to form and persist, even though Earth’s atmosphere had a lot of oxygen (and so was not a “reducing” atmosphere).
10.
Assuming that the scientists' current ██████ █████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██████
a
Meteorite impacts at ███ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████ █ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████
This raises the possibility that lightning could have produced amino acids around the impact sites of meteors, which temporarily had a reducing atmosphere.
b
A single amino ████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████
This doesn’t address how an amino acid could have formed and avoided breaking apart in an atmosphere that wasn’t reducing. If there was no reducing atmosphere, how would that single amino acid have come about?
c
Earth's atmosphere has ███████ █████████████ █████ ████ █████ ██████
The current atmosphere doesn’t matter, since the stimulus tells us Earth’s atmosphere “was” - meaning, at the time of the first amino acids - rich in oxygen. So, if the atmosphere wasn’t reducing, how could the amino acids form and avoid breaking apart?
d
Lightning was less ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ████
But if there was lightning, however rare it was, how could that have produced amino acids in a non-reducing atmosphere? This doesn’t provide a theory about how this happened.
e
Asteroids contain amino ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████
We’re interested in explaining how lightning could have produced the first amino acids. It doesn’t matter whether asteroids could have already had amino acids. Those aren’t amino acids produced by lightning on Earth.