During much of the "Age of Enlightenment" in eighteenth- century Europe, scientists toiled under the belief that living things and the inanimate world were fundamentally distinct forms of matter. Then in 1828, Friedrich Wohler showed that he could synthesize urea, a well-known waste product of animals, from the minerals silver isocyanate and ammonium chloride. "I can make urea without kidneys!" he is said to have remarked. Of Wohler's discovery the preeminent chemist Justus von Liebig wrote in 1837 that the "production of urea without the assistance of vital functions ... must be considered one of the discoveries with which a new era in science has commenced." Slightly more than 100 years later, Stanley Miller discharged sparks into a mixture of H₂0, CH₄, NH₁, and H₂ in an effort to simulate the chemical conditions of an ancient reducing earth atmosphere (the sparks mimicked lightning striking a primordial sea or "soup") and identified many bio-molecules in the resulting mixture, including amino acids and carbohydrates. What do these experiments suggest about the nature of bio-molecules and the relationship between organic (living) and inorganic (non-living) matter? What do they suggest about the evolution of life? What do they indicate about the value of chemistry in understanding living things?