From these results, we found that mineral action cleaved part of the three-dimensional structure of lysozymes, and that certain amino acids were eluted.
4.2. Experiment on the birth of life
Here, we tried to reproduce the origin of life under laboratory conditions. For the starting material, we used solutions of olivine and basalt extracts containing organic compounds, such as amino acids, based on the experiments in Section 2.2. First, we put 10 cc of each solution in a Petri dish, and then added 1 cc of a lysozyme solution (10 mg of lysozymes completely dissolved in 100 cc of pure water). The resulting solution was then placed at room temperature under a microscope for observation. The entire procedure was done under sterile conditions, in a sterile box. The Petri dish contained room temperature. During the first 2 days, the liquid was clear and nothing was observed. However, on the third day, one object about 1μm in size suddenly appeared. Then, between 3 and 5 h later, five of these objects appeared in succession. Within 24 h, this number had increased to about 20〜30. All of these objects were immobile. Although objects that are 1μm in size in a solution are usually engaged in Brownian motion, there was absolutely no movement in the objects that appeared in our experiment.
On the fourth day, the objects began to move slightly, with each one showing its own distinct pattern of movement. The number of these objects continued to increase with time. A week after they first appeared, they had grown to 1.5-2 μm in size, and many had begun to move in groups of two or three.
Because contamination was a possibility, we repeated the experiment nine times. The results were identical: the objects appeared on about the third day and began to move slowly on the fourth.
As control experiments, we let pure water, pure water and lysozymes solution, and a pure water and mineral solution stand for one month, but nothing ever appeared.
Furthermore, when the experiment was performed in an open system, i.e. in the ambient atmosphere, objects of 1μm or less appeared and quickly began to move, and objects identical to those in the sterilized experiment (i.e. about 1μm in size) appeared. About a week later flocculation occurred, and in a month or so, filamentose organisms could be seen.
