Life
For other uses, see Life (disambiguation).:''"Lives" and "Living" redirect here. See
Lives (disambiguation) and
Living (disambiguation) for other uses.
Life is the characteristic state of
organisms. Properties common to terrestrial organisms (
plants,
animals,
fungi,
protists and
bacteria) are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce andâ€"through natural selectionâ€"adapt.
An entity with the above properties is considered to be
organic life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. For example, the capacity for descent with modification is often taken as the only essential property of life. This definition notably includes
viruses, which do not qualify under narrower definitions as they are acellular and do not metabolise. Broader definitions of life may also include theoretical
non-carbon-based life and other
alternative biology.
The entire Earth contains about 75 billion tons of
biomass (life), which lives within various environments within the
biosphere.
A conventional definition
While there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that the biological manifestation of life exhibits the following phenomena:
#
Organization - Living things are composed of one or more
cells, which are the basic units of life.#
Metabolism - Metabolism produces
energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (
synthesis) and decomposing organic matter (
catalysis). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (
homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.#
Growth - Growth results from a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.#
Adaptation - Adaptation is the accommodation of a living organism to its environment. It is fundamental to the process of
evolution and is determined by the organism's
heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.#
Response to stimuli - A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion: the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.#
Reproduction - The division of one cell to form two new cells is reproduction. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either
asexually, from a single parent organism, or
sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.
Exceptions to the conventional definition
It is important to note that life is a
definition that applies primarily at the level of species, so even though many individuals of any given species do not reproduce, possibly because they belong to specialized Sterile castes (such as ant workers), these are still considered forms of life. One could say that the property of life is inherited; hence, sterile hybrid species such as the mule are considered life although not themselves capable of reproduction. It is also worth noting that non-reproducing individuals may still help the spread of their genes through such mechanisms as
kin selection.
For similar reasons, viruses and aberrant prion proteins are often considered replicators rather than forms of life, a distinction warranted because they cannot reproduce without very specialized substrates such as host cells or proteins, respectively. However, most forms of life rely on foods produced by other species, or at least the specific chemistry of Earth's environment.
Some individuals contest such definitions of life on philosophical grounds, and offer the following as examples of life: viruses which reproduce; flames which "grow"; certain computer software programs which are programmed to mutate and evolve; future software programs which may evince (even high-order) behavior; machines which can move; and some forms of proto-life consisting of metabolizing cells without the ability to reproduce.
Still, most scientists would not call such phenomena expressive of life. Generally all six characteristics are required for a population to be considered a life form.
Descent with modification
A useful characteristic upon which to base a definition of life is that of
descent with modification: the ability of a life form to produce offspring that are like its parent or parents, but with the possibility of some variation due to
chance. Descent with modification is sufficient by itself to allow
evolution, assuming that the variations in the offspring allow for differential survival. The study of this form of heritability is called
genetics. In all known life forms (assuming
prions are not counted as such), the genetic material is primarily
DNA or the related molecule,
RNA.
Unlike other definitions, this definition of life includes
viruses, as they are replicators with a
genotype and
phenotype, making them capable of natural selection and evolution. The definition may also include other replicating elements, including
plasmids, which are otherwise considered part of a larger organism.
Taken to the extreme, a characteristic conveyed by a single
gene of an organism may be considered to have its own life, as it has descent with modification,â€"an idea explored by
Richard Dawkins in
The Selfish Gene. The usefulness of this definition becomes less clear when the link between genotype and phenotype is more abstract, such as for individual
base pairs or
satellite DNA.
Also difficult for this definition is organisms which cannot reproduce directly, such as
worker beesâ€"which may also continue their gene-line by helping to produce siblings, and sterilised organisms, such as spayed or neutered pets, which are no longer capable of descent.
More abstract concepts may also be considered alive by this definition, including
memes and the
artificial life of
computer software, such as self-modifying
computer viruses and programs created through
genetic programming.
Biosemiotics
The growing field of
Biosemiotics, defines life very differently. Life is considered not just from the perspectives of molecules and chemistry, but as signs conveyed and interpreted by other living signs in a variety of ways, including by means of molecules. In this sense, biosemiotics takes for granted and respects the complexity of living processes as revealed by the existing fields of biology however, biosemiotics attempts to bring together separate findings of the various disciplines of biology (including evolutionary biology) into a new and more unified perspective on the central phenomena of the living world, including the generation of function and signification in living systems, from the ribosome to the ecosystem and from the beginnings of life to its ultimate meanings.
Other definitions
The
systemic definition is that living things are self-organizing and
autopoietic (self-producing). These objects are not to be confused with
dissipative structures (e.g. fire).
Variations of this definition include
Stuart Kauffman's definition of life as an
autonomous agent or a
multi-agent system capable of reproducing itself or themselves, and of completing at least one
thermodynamic work cycle.
Another definition is : "Living things are systems that tend to respond to changes in their environment, and inside themselves, in such a way as to promote their own continuation."
Yet another definition: "Life is a self-organizing, cannibalistic system consisting of a population of replicators that are capable of mutation, around most of which homeostatic, metabolizing organisms evolve." This definition does not include flames, but does include worker ants, virii and mules. Without 'most of', it does not include virii.
Self reproduction and energy consumption is only one means for a system to promote its own continuation. This explains why bees can be alive and yet commit suicide in defending their hive. In this case the whole colony works as such a living system.
There is no truly "standard" model for the origin of life, but most currently accepted scientific models build in one way or another on the following discoveries, which are listed roughly in order of postulated emergence:
#Plausible pre-biotic conditions result in the creation of the basic small molecules of life. This was demonstrated in the
Miller-Urey experiment.#
Phospholipids spontaneously form
lipid bilayers, the basic structure of a
cell membrane.#Procedures for producing random
RNA molecules can produce
ribozymes, which are able to produce more of themselves under very specific conditions.
There are many different hypotheses regarding the path that might have been taken from simple
organic molecules to protocells and metabolism. Many models fall into the "
genes-first" category or the "
metabolism-first" category, but a recent trend is the emergence of hybrid models that do not fit into either of these categories.
Main articles: Extraterrestrial life, AstrobiologyEarth is the only planet in the
universe known to harbor life. The
Drake equation has been used to estimate the probability of life elsewhere, but scientists disagree on many of the values of variables in this equation. Depending on those values, the equation may either suggest that life arises frequently or infrequently.
*
Artificial life*
Extraterrestrial life*
Biological kingdom*
Origin of life*Kauffman, Stuart. The Adjacent Possible: A Talk with Stuart Kauffman. Retrieved Nov. 30, 2003 from [
1]
*
Lynn Margulis and Doris Sagan -
What is Life? (1995). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81087-5
*
Erwin Schrodinger -
What is Life? (1944 to 2000). Cambridge University Press (Canto). ISBN 0-521-42708-8
*
"In the Beginning..." (The Economist)*
"The Adjacent Possible: A Talk with Stuart Kauffman"*
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry*
The Biologist: Biology
*
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English: Life *
The Deep Hot Biosphere Theory (Thomas Gold)*
Today life and stress*
What is Life ? The Process from Birth to Death
