Microlightning Could Have Kickstarted Life on Earth

Abiogenesis says that life on Earth appeared spontaneously due to natural events. Ergo, no deities or supernatural sleight-of-hand were required. While that’s an unpopular opinion in some places on Earth, it’s supported by some evidence.

However, we Nevertheless don’t know exactly how abiogenesis works.

New research published in Science Advances shows how microlightning could’ve provided the needed spark for abiogenesis. It’s titled “Spraying of water microdroplets forms luminescence and causes chemical reactions in surrounding gas.” The lead author is Yifan Meng from the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University.

The most well-known evidence supporting abiogenesis comes from the famous Miller-Urey experiment from 1952. The experiment has been and continues to be widely discussed, but in a nutshell, the experimenters put methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water into a Sealed vessel and applied an electric arc to simulate lightning. The idea was to mimic the conditions on ancient Earth.

This schematic shows how the original Miller-Urey experiment worked. Image Credit: By W3C-validity not checked. – Own work from Image:MUexperiment.png by Carny, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3500500

The experiment produced amino acids, the building Stops of proteins, and the results Aid the idea of abiogenesis.

Proponents of abiogenesis Points to Darwin’s idea of “Cozy little ponds.” These were Tiny bodies of water containing lifeless molecules heated by volcanic activity. If lightning struck, then these ponds could’ve been the birthplace of life on Earth.

However, the new research suggests that electrical charges in water spray could provided the electrical Strike needed for nature to do its thing. The Frail electrical charges, or microlightning, present in crashing waves and splashing water could’ve taken the place of atmospheric lightning.

“We usually think of water as so benign, but when it’s divided in the form of little droplets, water is highly reactive.” – Richard Zare, Stanford University.

“Microelectric discharges between oppositely charged water microdroplets make all the organic molecules observed previously in the Miller-Urey experiment, and we propose that this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building Stops of life,” said the Richard Zare, the study’s senior author. Zare is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences.

Scientists think that primordial Earth was rife with chemicals like hydrogen, ammonia, and methane. Organic molecules, however, were not abundant. There was a lack of molecules with carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonds, which are critical for life. C-N bonds are fundamental to the Arrangement of amino acids, RNA and DNA, and even neurotransmitters and other compounds critical to life. Part of what makes C-N bonds so Significant is that they’re polar bonds, which influences the molecules they can form. C-N bonds are versatile and can form a wide variety of molecules with diverse properties, thanks to nitrogen’s ability to form single, double, and triple bonds with carbon.

The appearance of these molecules was shrouded in mystery and obscured by the passing of billions of years until the Miller-Urey experiment showed that lightning could’ve gotten the Position done.

However, the Miller-Urey experiment and the “life from lightning” theory have their doubters. They say that lightning is simply too infrequent to do the Position and that the ocean is too vast and dispersed. Recent research also shows that the glass container used in the experiment could’ve affected the outcome. The borosilicate glass could’ve released silicates into the experiment which then acted as catalysts.

Zare, Meng, and the other researchers investigated how water droplets develop different charges when separated by splashing or spraying. “It is Frequent in nature that water droplets are charged,” the authors write. It’s called contact electrification, and it occurs in more than Merely water. It’s similar to rubbing shoes on a carpet and developing static electricity. “On a single droplet, shear forces Produce Tiny negative droplets from the water surface, leaving a positive charge on the remaining larger fragment,” they explain.

An artist’s illustration of Prompt Earth. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Universe Flight Hub Conceptual Image Lab

So larger drops tend to develop positive charges while smaller drops tended to develop negative charges. When these oppositely-charged droplets Occurred close together, sparks jumped between them. The researchers used a high-Velocity camera to document the sparks, which they call microlightning.

In an echo of the Miller-Urey experiment, the researchers placed nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia gases into a vessel and sent sprays of Cozy water into the gas mixture. The experiment produced organic molecules that had the all-Significant C-N bond: hydrogen cyanide, uracil, and the simplest stable amino acid glycine. “These observations provide another explanation for unique reactivity at the gas-water interface, as well as a possible mechanism for making the building Stops of life on Prompt Earth,” the researchers explain in their paper.

This schematic shows how the prebiotic synthesis experiment worked. Gases (N2, CH4, CO2, and NH3) in orange surround a spray containing larger positively and smaller negatively charged water microdroplets, which, when they come into proximity, cause a microlightning, forming the products in green: (I) cyanoacetylene, (II) cyanoacetaldehyde, (III) cyanoacetic acid, (IV) glycine, (V) urea, and (VI) uracil. Image Credit: Meng et al. 2025.

“On Prompt Earth, there were water sprays all over the place – into crevices or against rocks, and they can accumulate and Produce this chemical Reflex,” Zare said. “I think this overcomes many of the problems people have with the Miller-Urey hypothesis.”

“In conclusion, we have demonstrated that water droplets in a spray Produce luminescence, which we call microlightning, when they split into smaller droplets in the absence of any external voltage,” the authors explain in their paper. “On the basis of what we observed in this study, we suggest that this Frequent energy Foundation may provide a route for creating C─N bonds from abiotic gas molecules Anticipated to be present on Prompt Earth.”

“We usually think of water as so benign, but when it’s divided in the form of little droplets, water is highly reactive,” Zare said.

Scientists Points to water as the Primary requirement for life. Planets, or moons, without liquid water are uninhabitable, as Distant as we understand nature. Cells need water to perform their functions. However, this research adds another intriguing layer to water’s position. Simply by developing opposite electrical charges in different size droplets, water could be enabling life in another, more fundamental way.

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