The definition of life

OilIsMastery said:
Synthetic organic chemists have synthesized saliva in a lab just as Wohler synthestized urine.
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Did your body make your saliva ? Yes.
Then your saliva is organic in origin.

or·gan·ic
2. characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organic

Definition 1. will be an interesting one for you ;)

1. noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.
 
Hi Greenberg,

It has finally dawned on me what you mean by a tree in a social context. I bet you are talking to one right now over a cup of coffee.
 
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water is an organic molecule, but it is organic in origin. biology defines life with Mrs. Gren.
Movement
Reproduction
Sensitivity
Growth
Respiration
Excretion
and i always bloody forget N... ummmmmmm oh yeah, nutrition.
 
S.A.M. said:
I'd like all those who are interested in defining life to have at it.

What is life? What defines something as live or not live?
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way to go sam...

this is a good start

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.
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and the energy upon the mass is that life in which like 'words', they are intended to continue

so a life within abiotic mass can exhist in the correct environment


A reduction or reversal of entropy:
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is again correct

almost like a rogue wave in the ocean; a combining can occur, that raises the potential of the energy state of the mass


so life is no longer to be seen as a structure but the energy itself upon that structure.

i.e.... when a person dies... all the mass is still there but that combined state of all that mass to the focal life (energy) has broken or is dead.

so a dead person is not just a reaction machine that quit reacting, but a life taking energy (consuming) from the environment; to continue; but died.

the focus is to reverse the idea of life, from being a freak a nature to the natural state of energy; to continue. That is why life even exists; purposed to continue.

it's the only law that counts
 
Enmos said:
Come on, are you dense ?
The entire product i.e. all the ingredients put together. It is of organic origin.
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What is "organic" origin? Are calcium ions that maintain nerve and muscle function organic and live?
 
May I barge in?
There are quite a number of tentative definitions (including those given at the beginning). The problem is that most are derived from a pre-classification between living and inanimate objects and then summarizing the differences. As such no clear-cut distinctions exist per se, only on-the-fly defniitions.
Viruses are the classical example for borderline organisms.
 
CharonZ said:
May I barge in?
There are quite a number of tentative definitions (including those given at the beginning). The problem is that most are derived from a pre-classification between living and inanimate objects and then summarizing the differences. As such no clear-cut distinctions exist per se, only on-the-fly defniitions.
Viruses are the classical example for borderline organisms.
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GRRRRR! :mad:

I was going to say that, eventually.
 
I assumed as much (hence the "may I barge in"). But I have said that so often (online as well in real life to students) I just went into auto mode.
 
Well I have heard more interesting definitions than I bargained for. Makes me wonder what they teach in schools these days.
 
Well, from my experience many first year students have no idea or in some cases heard of one of the definitions (replicates, metabolism, etc.).
This often goes up to the grad-school level. Relatively few question this on their own, though some do, eventually.
Depends a bit on the biological discipline they go into.
 
S.A.M. said:
Well I have heard more interesting definitions than I bargained for. Makes me wonder what they teach in schools these days.
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and that is the greatest line you could have posted


keep doubting and keep your eyes open.....


there is a paradigm shift and the core reality is that living structures are incorrectly defined because energy is misunderstood

life is not a bunch of simple chemical reactions as chemistry does not address the energy upon the mass.

best advice is use your head and begin your concept of life starting with atoms and energy versus adam and eve.... (cellular structures)

meaning think of life as the energy upon the mass, versus the idea that life is the mass assembled by simple chemical reactions in an entropic direction.

that is the error of the whole understanding of how life exists upon mass.

or simply realize life is all over the universe, and proven by just about every landing on just about every mission to other solar bodies

the base building block associated and combined as a rule to energy (progression/ see golden ratio), not of reductions by equilibrium or a chaotic law....

think of 'light' as the life upon mass and then go dig until your heart is content

i.e.... here is an example; your mommy and daddy, contributed a single cell, that had their light upon the mass (dna chain) representing the progression of evolution since the beginning of time (your lineage of life), and when both shades combined they made a new one called you.

so in a literal sense, you are of your whole lineage and parents, alive and in the flesh..... so whether you wish to believe it or not, in reality all your whole line of family is still alive, in you!

and to live longer, go make a baby.... teach a child, plant a tree....

in each case, you contributed your energy to begin a life......

so to understand life in reality, we can literally create an eternal existence by choice.....

all based on knowledge

there is no magic and that is what being honest, questioning and seeking finally evolved into; Understanding!
 
Bishadi said:
think of 'light' as the life upon mass and then go dig until your heart is content
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"Have shovel, will dig". That's my motto.

P.S. the extended version goes: "In spade(s), will we sap." Catchy, huh?
 
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CharonZ said:
The problem is that most are derived from a pre-classification between living and inanimate objects and then summarizing the differences. As such no clear-cut distinctions exist per se, only on-the-fly defniitions.
Viruses are the classical example for borderline organisms.
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But this can be said of all biological classifications, can’t it? I don’t see this as a problem only for our definitions of life. The natural world is a “continuum” which rarely displays clear-cut distinctions. However, it is our human nature to classify, categorize and compartmentalize everything. We pigeonhole the natural world into all sorts of artificial distinctions and labels, from the molecular and genetic levels all the way up to the whole animal and ecosystem levels. Sometimes our “on-the-fly” definitions are a good fit, sometimes not. We treat biology as if it were a digital system when it’s really analogue.
 
S.A.M. said:
I'd like all those who are interested in defining life to have at it.

What is life? What defines something as live or not live?
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A prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives?

How about, that which has the capacity to reproduce or make a copy of itself.
 
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