The definition of life
- Thread starter S.A.M.
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Vitalists and biogenic petroleum geologists define life as anything containing a carbon atom, thus the term "organic" chemistry.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Only if something has all of the following characteristics it is called life (I took these from Wiki by the way):
1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of 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.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability 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.
6. 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, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. 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.
1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of 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.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability 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.
6. 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, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. 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.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Yea, but you don't know what he means by it.
And besides, he only posted it a billion times all across the forums already.
Moronic indeed...LOL.
Here is a moron who claims molecular diamonds are alive: http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/d...ch_calgary/abstracts/extended/mello/mello.htm
Shhh S.A.M. don't tell anyone, they might blow a wingnut.
Molecular diamonds have never been alive and never will be alive. Yet Mello claims they are derived from "enzymatic lipids" LOL. Read it and weep...:bawl:
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
There is a difference between something being of biological origin and something being alive.
For instance saliva is of biological origin but it is not alive.
Granted I was saying alive as hyperbole when really I meant biological.
I'll bet you anything we could synthesize saliva in a lab using abiotic chemical components.
The same was done by Wohler with urine in 1828 using inorganic ammonium cyanate NH4OCN, in what is now called the Wohler synthesis.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Ok, that finally clears things up at least somewhat.
Fact remains that your saliva is a biological product, meaning it is produced by a living organism (namely you).
Similarly, when I say oil is of biological origin I do not mean to say that oil is alive or that carbon is alive (of which you have accused me in the past), I merely mean that oil was formed out of biological products (in this case that it was once part of a living creature).
Synthetic organic chemists have synthesized saliva in a lab just as Wohler synthestized urine.
I say no to all. Chemical elements are abiotic.