Evolution is truth — no less than as a lot as something is a “truth” within the scientific sense. What continues to be very a lot in query is abiogenesis, which is the origin of life from inorganic compounds. Evolution is the mechanism that took unicellular life to our present biodiversity, however scientists don’t know precisely how the primary single-cell organisms got here to be. Most respected theories posit that the situations on a younger Earth allowed natural compounds, like amino acids, to kind after which turn into organisms. In 1952, the Miller-Urey experiment confirmed that such a factor is feasible. To recreate that well-known experiment, M. Bindhammer turned to Arduino.

The situations that, theoretically, resulted within the first amino acids have been an environment of compounds like methane, water, ammonia, and hydrogen together with electrical energy within the type of lightning. Stanley Miller, beneath the supervision of Harold Urey, recreated these situations within the lab with a closed system that heated the gases, handed them by means of a chamber with electrodes to provide sparks, then down by means of a cooler and again to the beginning. That produced many amino acids that might (once more, in idea) come collectively to kind genetic code. M. Bindhammer’s replica of this experiment works in an identical approach, however with a plasma arc as an alternative of sparks.

M. Bindhammer wanted a option to management the plasma arc and selected an Arduino Uno Rev3 board for the job. That plasma arc oxidizes the nitrogen within the air, so it’s essential to the experiment. Producing the plasma arc required a whole lot of voltage (45000V), which M. Bindhammer managed by means of a MOSFET linked to the Arduino. That permit them modulate energy to the electrodes as a way to keep away from overheating them.

This appears to have been a hit and M. Bindhammer stories that the preliminary experiment produces the hypothesized outcomes.