The document discusses experiments that show how organic molecules like amino acids that are fundamental to life could have formed in conditions similar to early Earth or in space. One experiment in the 1950s by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey demonstrated that amino acids and other organic compounds could form by simulating early Earth conditions and subjecting simple molecules like methane and ammonia to electric sparks. A more recent experiment found similar results, showing more complex organic molecules can form when ice mixtures of carbon dioxide, ammonia, and hydrocarbons are bombarded by cosmic rays or electron beams. While the origin of the first organic molecules on Earth is still unknown, these experiments support the possibility that life could have started from compounds formed in space that were delivered