From:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...rgotten-exper/
Originally considered a dud, an old
volcano-in-a-bottle experiment designed to mimic conditions that may have brewed the components of life might have been right on target.
........
"The amino acid precursors formed in a plume and
concentrated along tidal shores. They settled in the water, underwent further reactions there, and as they washed along the shore, became concentrated and underwent further polymerization events," explained Indiana University biochemist Adam Johnson, a co-author of the study.
"And lightning" — the final catalyst in the equation — "tends to be extremely common with volcanic eruptions."