Answer to Question 1
The Miller-Urey experiments involved passing an electrical charge (lightning) through a primordial soup of chemicals believed to be similar to those which existed on early Earth. The result was the same simple amino acids found today in all living things on Earth.
Answer to Question 2
Life must be able to react, grow, reproduce, and evolve. However, these rules are not hard and fast; things that are not alive, such as stars, may satisfy several of these requirements. Viruses do most of these things but are not generally considered to be alive either.
Wilson and Simberloff's experiments on the equilibrium model of biogeography.
Aneurysm. Photograph of the aorta, the large blood vessel arising from the heart, with a large bulge
nature
Polar Nature of Water Molecules
A Schematic Description of the Experiment by Misanin, Miller, and Lewis (1968)
Results and interpretation of a mixed copolymer