[letmeno]

Could someone give me a solid definition or idea what exactly "Primordial broth" is?

[kp2171]

Basically talking about a theory as to how life could arise on earth... how some fundamental building blocks of life could arise from the ancient conditions of earth.

Two links from first page search engine results. Do a little work and you'll find more of the same.

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/S...dial_soup.html

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...0259.Ev.r.html

[jwpowless]

In the classic experiment (Miller & Urley, 1953) the critical part of the "broth" was amino acids and other chemicals normally associated with life. See http://tidepool.st.usm.edu/crswr/millerurey.html

Today scientists are focused on the role RNA might have played as the first replicating molecule (wow, DNA wasn't first!). Some researchers are reporting how RNA can be formed from molecules on clay. Cool. See http://www.origins.rpi.edu/clayandtheoriginsoflife.html

Ooops, forgot to mention that the incredients for the "broth" are whatever chemicals might have been present on a very early Earth.

Try the Wiki on the subject at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_life

Specifically from the Wiki article, and I think the answer to your question, "the basic inorganic chemicals from which life was formed are methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), water (H2O), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), and phosphate (PO43-)."

Best regards,

-Jeff in Michigan