someguy Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Not knowing much about biology, I was wondering what makes something considerd to be alive? At what level is life considered to be there? Is a virus a life form? Bacteria?How much do we know about the makeup of life? DNA? Thanks, Some Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthepon Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Life is separated from the lack of it by activity of DNA. If stuff is being produced, used and made an a cell, it is alive. Viruses are considered semi-life forms, they are at the border of living and dead. Bacteria are full scale life forms. We know so much about the makeup of life that it will leave your head spinning. DNA is a very very known thing, we know a huge lot of what it is, does, makes, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 A fairly good discussion of this question, can be found on wikipedia. Life Then, there is this very famous book by the reputed physicist, Erwin Schrödinger, of quantum mechanics fame it is titled What is Life? Well, left to myself, I would assert, life is not made up of unique substance, living organisms have unique characteristics!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteNow Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Every individual's definition will be different. Maybe super clusters of galaxies moving in concert with one another could be considered life. For others, they might stick to the more basic plant/animal set. Just depends on the application and context of your definition. What is it to you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queso Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Life's the opposite of death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queso Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 I've found heaven in Vaginas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes Benzene Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Some characteristics of life:-Has cells-Converts energy-Grows-Reproduces ...all living things have at least those in common. If something is missing any one of those, it is certainly not living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 In considering the borderline cases of what is, in a conventional biological sense, alive and what is not, let’s not forget prions. If answering the live-or-not question for viruses, which are unable to reproduce without using host cells, is difficult, answering it for prions, which appear to altogether lack nucleic acids, is even more so. Personally, I suspect that a black-and-white distinction between living and unliving will prove increasingly unuseful as knowledge about both molecular biology and the organization of non-biological systems increases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
infamous Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Not knowing much about biology, I was wondering what makes something considerd to be alive? Whether by chemical means or otherwise, life is: 'the ability to alter the enviormental conditions to sustain existence'. At what level is life considered to be there? Is a virus a life form? Bacteria?It used to be common thought for science to consider a virus a nonliving entity. That view has slowly been changing over the last few years to the point where a few scientists believe that the virus may be a precursor to life. How much do we know about the makeup of life? DNA? Thanks, Some GuyActually, we have considerable knowledge about the structure of DNA at present. However, we still have much to learn about what subtle changes in this code have to do with the functionality of the organism.....................Infy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay-qu Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 Its going to be a tough question no matter where you slice it, I read an article about a group trying to create artificial life, they where given a few criteria that it had to meet: eat, grow, reproduce and evolve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappytheStripper Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 The cell is one of the fundamental structural units of which all living things are composed .. The question "what is life " .. also produces other questions .. like "what is A life?" .. these are questions designed to explain human existance and existance beyond .. and one question will almost always lead to another question .. "What is life?" .. is also one of the major questions for humanity. To define the concept of life .. one must first ask .. "What says that something lives?" .. then .. "What conditions are required for life?" .. and also .. "What does living imply?" What exactly constitutes life .. may be determined by a historical blueprint .. one half of this blue print is a genetic message to re-produce and grow .. and the other half of the blueprint .. contains environmental factors .. Life may be determined as a manifestation of energy into existance .. We say something lives because it is a term invented by humans .. Whatever the conditions may be It must be balanced and stable .. in order for life to be conceived .. Conception is defined as a general set of specific instances or ideas occurring in a sequence and encoded in a self contained memory. The definition of life being defined as the quality that distinguishes living organisms and inanimate matter. This inanimate matter is akin to the single ovum cell and the functions such as growth and reproduction are responses to stimuli originating from a living organism in the environment and gifted... What says that something lives? What is something? The evolution of mankind kind is encoded as knowledge in a self contained memory, which when triggered gather and repeat this knowledge in sequence from a single ovum cell containing chromosomes to an external set of corresponding chromosomes. This code is historical in context and conception is perceived as the gathering of corresponding chromosomes to function in sequence through progressive stages... We then call this "growth" ... "the gift of life". Is that something? Maybe not... As the quality of the life conceived may be distorted and the encoded sequence unable to perform the necessary functions that determine life. So... life says therefore whatever the code reads and the quality of information contained and needed to distinguish particular functions on the smallest scale in sequence. What conditions are required for life? Condition is defined as a state of being... and being is the result of time and space events coming together... and attractive forces seek to organize functions required for life. I say attractive forces mostly because it’s only the strongest of life forming that will survive even when the hosting environment is weak... Although the environment leads to poorer quality... so the better the quality the longer the life... Guess that means that quality is required for life and not the only state of being needed either. You would then ask what are the conditions in the environment determining the quality of the host? This would then become a question about the state of information encoded in the host and the hosting environment that proposes life. Which I may answer later...For now I answer what does living imply? What does imply mean?? Suggestion?? Okay I suggest living in the moment... a moment I define as "now"... And based on this suggestion I propose... life is a combination of time and space events requiring a certain set of encoded instructions in a corresponding environment interfacing at a particular point along the continuum transforming various stages conditioned to grow in a sequential order using logic of the information contained within a single cell and historically known as nature. In other words .. life simply IS Regards Ashley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 Let me then, explore those unique characteristics of life!! Well, left to myself, I would assert, life is not made up of unique substance, living organisms have unique characteristics!:shade: A living object must be exchanging all the time with other objects around. What does it exchange? Anything: Energy, thoughts, money, information; just to list a few. So that includes statements, like To make a livingLead a fruitful lifeArt of livingExtraterrestrial life That's just a thought; that needs to be thought over, exchanged and discussed, That indeed is life!!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthepon Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 I'm posting the most robotic answer to just what life could be. A group of cells coordinating with one another, producing extracellular matter, absorbing nutrients, growing in organisational size, producing similar forms like itself, and usually being coordinated and controlled by a 'higher' form(called observing conciousness) That's how a robot would describe life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
someguy Posted May 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2006 Very interesting comments.To get more to the point I am more interested in finding out what is the difference between something alive and dead? A rock and a bacteria?What is it that makes it alive? If it is just a combination of atoms that make up protiens that make up DNA?And specifically if we know what makes it appear in these combinations?Is DNA considered alive?RNA? Do we know excactly what is needed to be able to create life? Thanks,Some Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthepon Posted May 25, 2006 Report Share Posted May 25, 2006 Very interesting comments.To get more to the point I am more interested in finding out what is the difference between something alive and dead? A rock and a bacteria?What is it that makes it alive? If it is just a combination of atoms that make up protiens that make up DNA?And specifically if we know what makes it appear in these combinations?Is DNA considered alive?RNA? Do we know excactly what is needed to be able to create life? Thanks,Some GuyTo be alive, a thing needs to fulfill a few criteria.An alive thing needs to do life processes: growth, nutrition, reproduction. Respiration, excretion may be included. An alive thing becomes dead when it ceases to do any life processes. And anything alive is not differentiated from something dead by any special defineable tags or labels. The type of activity of the thing describes that. DNA, RNA are not living. The cell is the smallest unit of life. Calling anything smaller that as living is like... saying to a human organ 'Hey, junior Joe, how's it going?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted May 25, 2006 Report Share Posted May 25, 2006 To be alive, a thing needs to fulfill a few criteria.An alive thing needs to do life processes: growth, nutrition, reproduction. Respiration, excretion may be included. An alive thing becomes dead when it ceases to do any life processes. And anything alive is not differentiated from something dead by any special defineable tags or labels. The type of activity of the thing describes that. DNA, RNA are not living. The cell is the smallest unit of life. Calling anything smaller that as living is like... saying to a human organ 'Hey, junior Joe, how's it going?' Not always true Ron! There are many instances when something can be termed alive, although it doesn't grow, cannot reproduce, doesn't excrete etc. At the same time we have devices that do have one or two of these features bit can't be termed as alive. I would recommend that you look through the page on life at wikipedia. Life is an enigma, not so easily understood, when you think about it intelligently!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes Benzene Posted May 25, 2006 Report Share Posted May 25, 2006 There are many instances when something can be termed alive, although it doesn't grow, cannot reproduce, doesn't excrete etc. At the same time we have devices that do have one or two of these features bit can't be termed as alive. Like what? I can't think of anything that does not reproduce. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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