Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Microscopic zaps between crashing water droplets could've formed the building blocks of life—no thunderclouds required.
Water sprays mixed with early Earth gases triggered reactions that made complex organic molecules.
When charged droplets collided, they sparked—igniting reactions to create uracil and amino acids.
Dr. Zare’s team proposes microlightning as a powerful new mechanism in prebiotic chemistry.
Experiments with high-speed cameras captured real flashes between water droplets forming key compounds.
Large droplets carried positive charge, small ones negative—when they met, sparks literally flew.
Nitrogen, methane, CO₂, and ammonia were used to mimic early Earth and trigger molecule creation.
This challenges Miller-Urey’s ocean-lightning idea, offering a more scalable, frequent alternative.
Credit: EOS.org
Waves crashing on rocks, waterfalls, and sprays may have been Earth’s first molecular workshop.