Editing Miller–Urey experiment (section)

=== Stanley Miller and Harold Urey ===
[[File:Miller1999.jpg|thumb|Stanley Miller in 1999, posed with an apparatus like that used in the original experiment]]
At the time of the Miller–Urey experiment, Harold Urey was a [[Professor of Chemistry]] at the [[University of Chicago]] who had a well-renowned career, including receiving the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1934 for his isolation of [[deuterium]]<ref>Harold C. Urey – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Mon. 13 Nov 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1934/urey/biographical/</ref> and leading efforts to use [[gaseous diffusion]] for [[uranium]] [[Isotope separation|isotope enrichment]] in support of the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harold C. Urey |url=https://www.nndb.com/people/873/000092597/ |access-date=2023-11-13 |website=www.nndb.com}}</ref> In 1952, Urey postulated that the high temperatures and energies associated with [[Impact event|large impacts]] in Earth's early history would have provided an atmosphere of [[methane]] (CH<sub>4</sub>), water (H<sub>2</sub>O), [[ammonia]] (NH<sub>3</sub>), and [[hydrogen]] (H<sub>2</sub>), creating the reducing environment necessary for the Oparin-Haldane "primordial soup" scenario.<ref name="Urey-1952">{{Cite journal |last=Urey |first=Harold C. |date=April 1, 1952 |title=On the Early Chemical History of the Earth and the Origin of Life |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=351–363|doi=10.1073/pnas.38.4.351 |pmid=16589104 |bibcode=1952PNAS...38..351U |doi-access=free |pmc=1063561 }}</ref>

Stanley Miller arrived at the University of Chicago in 1951 to pursue a PhD under [[Nuclear physics|nuclear physicist]] [[Edward Teller]], another prominent figure in the Manhattan Project.<ref name="Lazcano-2008">{{Cite journal |last1=Lazcano |first1=Antonio |last2=Bada |first2=Jeffrey L. |date=2008-10-01 |title=Stanley L. Miller (1930–2007): Reflections and Remembrances |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-008-9145-2 |journal=Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres |language=en |volume=38 |issue=5 |pages=373–381 |doi=10.1007/s11084-008-9145-2 |pmid=18726708 |bibcode=2008OLEB...38..373L |s2cid=1167340 |issn=1573-0875|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Miller began to work on how different [[chemical element]]s were formed in the early universe, but, after a year of minimal progress, Teller was to leave for California to establish [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] and further nuclear weapons research.<ref name="Lazcano-2008" /> Miller, having seen Urey lecture on his 1952 paper, approached him about the possibility of a prebiotic synthesis experiment. While Urey initially discouraged Miller, he agreed to allow Miller to try for a year.<ref name="Lazcano-2008" /> By February 1953, Miller had mailed a manuscript as sole author reporting the results of his experiment to ''[[Science (journal)|Science]].''<ref name="Lazcano-2003">{{Cite journal |last1=Lazcano |first1=Antonio |last2=Bada |first2=Jeffrey L. |date=2003-06-01 |title=The 1953 Stanley L. Miller Experiment: Fifty Years of Prebiotic Organic Chemistry |url=https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024807125069 |journal=Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere |language=en |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=235–242 |doi=10.1023/A:1024807125069 |pmid=14515862 |bibcode=2003OLEB...33..235L |issn=1573-0875|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Urey refused to be listed on the manuscript because he believed his status would cause others to underappreciate Miller's role in designing and conducting the experiment and so encouraged Miller to take full credit for the work. Despite this the set-up is still most commonly referred to including both their names.<ref name="Lazcano-2003" /><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Marshall |first=Michael |date=2023-11-06 |title=The elusive origins of life |magazine=[[New Scientist Magazine]] |location=Australia |publisher=New Scientist}}</ref> After not hearing from ''Science'' for a few weeks, a furious Urey wrote to the editorial board demanding an answer, stating, "If ''Science'' does not wish to publish this promptly we will send it to the ''[[Journal of the American Chemical Society]]''."<ref name="Lazcano-2003" /> Miller's manuscript was eventually published in ''Science'' in May 1953.<ref name="Lazcano-2003" />