
Julia Child Cooks Primordial Soup (1973) [video] - DonHopkins
https://massasoit.instructure.com/courses/346438/pages/video-the-primordial-soup-with-julia-child
======
rootbear
As Don Hopkins notes, this was originally part of the National Air and Space
Museum's "Life in the Universe" exhibit. I saw it several times there and it's
still a treat. For a while, a high quality version was available on YouTube
but it was taken down due to a copyright claim by the owner, WGBH Educational
Foundation. The Smithsonian Magazine link Don posted has a link to the now-
removed video.

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QuantumYeti
Only slightly related, but she also helped develop shark repellent for the US
government:

[https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-
archive/...](https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-
archive/2015-featured-story-archive/shark-repellent.html)

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durbutter
If anyone hasn't seen Cosmos (1980) it's explained and the result of the
experiment is shown:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xly_5Ei3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xly_5Ei3U)

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thewisenerd
boy-oh; that list reminds me of the one scene in full-metal alchemist where
they list the ingredients that make up a human

~~~
dylan604
also, the scene in Breaking Bad where they determine how much of each element
is involved in making up a human.

~~~
nojvek
Breaking Bad was a great trip in Chemistry basics.

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DonHopkins
Video: The Primordial Soup with Julia Child. (Click on the small thumbnail in
the second row with the (>) "play" icon to see the video.)

[https://massasoit.instructure.com/courses/346438/pages/video...](https://massasoit.instructure.com/courses/346438/pages/video-
the-primordial-soup-with-julia-child)

The National Air and Space Museum used to show this delightful video in its
"Life in The Universe" exhibit, in which Julia Child recreates Stanley
Miller's famous experiment, cooking up a delicious hot batch of Primordial
Soup!

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/julia-child-
an...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/julia-child-and-the-
primordial-soup-35465592/)

>Julia Child and the Primordial Soup

>Scientists don't yet know how life began here on Earth. Mineralogist Bob
Hazen, who is profiled in the October issue of Smithsonian, thinks that rocks
were key to the development of life. Reporter Helen Fields wrote:

>It’s the complexity of the hydrothermal vent environment—gushing hot water
mixing with cold water near rocks, and ore deposits providing hard surfaces
where newly formed amino acids could congregate—that makes it such a good
candidate as a cradle of life. “Organic chemists have long used test tubes,”
he says, “but the origin of life uses rocks, it uses water, it uses
atmosphere. Once life gets a foothold, the fact that the environment is so
variable is what drives evolution."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment)

>The Miller–Urey experiment (or Miller experiment) was a chemical experiment
that simulated the conditions thought at the time (1952) to be present on the
early Earth and tested the chemical origin of life under those conditions. The
experiment at the time supported Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's
hypothesis that putative conditions on the primitive Earth favoured chemical
reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler
inorganic precursors. Considered to be the classic experiment investigating
abiogenesis, it was conducted in 1952 by Stanley Miller, with assistance from
Harold Urey, at the University of Chicago and later the University of
California, San Diego and published the following year.

[https://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech-0515](https://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech-0515)

>May 15, 1953: Cookin' Up Some Primordial Soup

>1953: Stanley Miller, just 23 years old, publishes his landmark work on the
production of amino acids, a necessary component of life, in a jar.

~~~
eesmith
Here she cooks a diamond. The result is "a very sad sight."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ-
mVHoosdI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ-mVHoosdI)

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DavidAdams
I grew up in DC in the 70s, and used to go to the Air and Space Museum all the
time. I'm surprised I don't remember having seen this video as a kid.

I love how she uses her well-worn chef's knife as a pointer.

~~~
DonHopkins
Me too! (You might also appreciate the FX show "The Americans" that's set in
that era and area. One of the kids on that show had the exact same Star Wars
blanket as I did!)

[https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-STAR-WARS-Blanket-
Throw-197...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-STAR-WARS-Blanket-
Throw-1977-Approx-4-5X6-5FT-EXTREMELY-RARE-/164050327261)

The "Life in the Universe" exhibit was on the first floor of the West wing,
from July 1, 1976 through March 1, 1979:

[https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/life-universe-event-
exhib-346...](https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/life-universe-event-exhib-3464)

It also featured the original "Powers of Ten" movie:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0)

And they had a cool interactive "Pick-a-Star" display that let you press
buttons to select hypothetical planetary systems and extraterrestrial life
forms:

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-13)

Did you ever see the "Person to Person" Telephone Exhibit in the History and
Technology museum? My mom was a docent at the Electricity Discovery Corner,
right next to that. So we'd go to the museums every Saturday!

[https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_955](https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_955)

More photos of the "Life in the Universe" exhibit (it was cool and dark and
really great place to hang out if you were stoned):

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-0)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-1)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-2)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-3)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-4)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-5)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-6)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-7)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-8)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-1976-9)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-10)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-11)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-12)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-13)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-14)

[https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-
smiths...](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/museums-smithsonian-
institution-si-exhibits-nasm-life-universe-gallery-107-15)

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carabiner
How does it taste?

