Bacteria Life Forms on Mars: Possible or Not? Part II Jerry Leung and Timmy Chu R C Palmer Secondary Floor Location: M124V

The purpose of our experiment, entitled, “Bacteria life forms on Mars- Possible or Not?” is to determine whether or not amino acids could have developed on Mars during the early stages of its formation, based on the experiment done in 1953 by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey. The concept is that life on Mars might be possible if amino acids could form, since amino acids are the basis of all life as we know it. Materials: 3L flask, 500-mL flask, 2 300mL flasks, water, liquid ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, Tesla coil, heat source, rubber tubing, rubber stoppers, glass tubing, dry ice, micropipette, chromatography paper, solvent, popsicle sticks, tape, ninhydrin, spray bottle, box, copper wire, and metal rod.

Procedure:
First, set up the 3L and 500mL flask so that they are connected in a closed system with the rubber tubing. Wire the copper wire, Tesla coil and metal rod so that electricity would discharge through the air in the 3L flask if the Tesla coil is turned on. Make sure that the gases are all in the 3L flask, and then use the 500mL flask to boil the liquids (ammonia and water) so that the gases flow into the 3L flask. Run the Tesla coil for 10 minutes. Condense the gas mixture using the dry ice. If there is a liquid solution, take a sample of it with the micropipette. Repeat at least once.

For each liquid solution obtained in the above steps, drop a few drops of the solution onto two strips of chromatography paper, each with a line drawn 1~2 cm above the base. Fill the bottom of the 300mL flasks with a solvent, and use the tape and popsicle sticks to hold the strips of paper up in the solvent, with the base end down. Then, remove the paper strip and wait for it to dry. Repeat at least twice, but using the same pieces of chromatography paper.For each strip, if there is a purplish substance on it, measure the distance the purple traveled up the strip, starting from the line, and divide it by the distance traveled by the solvent to obtain the Rf value. Check the Rf values chart see which amino acids, if any, you created during the experiment.

During our experiment, we found what appeared to be the amino acids glycine and asparagine. However, we also found three other substances that appeared to be amino acids, but did not appear on the Rf value chart, possibly meaning that either the measuring methods we used we were not accurate enough to accurately measure the Rf values (a source of error) or that there was an amino acid-simulating substance that happened to taint the strips of chromatography paper that we used (another possible source of error). In other words, although the results supported our hypothesis, they gave a low probability that amino acids could have developed on Mars. If we do this experiment again, we will focus on reducing possible sources of error.