The Miller and Urey experiment is often viewed as an important experiment for AP Biology students to know/understand. Describe their experiment and its importance for an AP Biology Reader.

The Miller and Urey experiment is a well-known classic experiment in which hypothetical conditions of the early Earth's evolution were simulated to test the possibility of chemical evolution. In fact, this was an experimental test of the hypothesis previously expressed by Alexander Oparin and John Haldane that the conditions that existed on primitive Earth promoted chemical reactions that could lead to the synthesis of organic molecules from inorganic ones. It was held in 1953 by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey. The apparatus designed for the experiment included a mixture of gases corresponding to the notion of the composition of the atmosphere of the early Earth in the 1950s, and electric discharges passing through it (simulating lightning strikes on the ground). The Miller and Urey experiment is considered one of the most important experiments in the study of the origin of life on Earth.