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What is life?

Jaime Gómez-Márquez1

  • 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology - CIBUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. jaime.gomez.marquez@usc.es.

Molecular Biology Reports
|July 28, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Life is defined as a preprogrammed, interactive, adaptive, and evolutionary process within organized structures. This definition supports considering viruses as living entities and suggests extraterrestrial life may be similar to Earth

Keywords:
Extraterrestrial lifeLife definitionLiving virusesRobots

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Area of Science:

  • Biology
  • Philosophy of Science

Background:

  • Traditional definitions of life are debated among biologists, scientists, and philosophers.
  • There is a need for an alternative vision for defining life based on universal traits of living beings.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new definition of life based on common characteristics of living organisms.
  • To re-evaluate the classification of viruses as living entities.
  • To speculate on the nature of extraterrestrial life.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of traditional definitions of life.
  • Development of a new definition of life based on identified common traits.
  • Application of the new definition to the case of viruses.
  • Consideration of universal laws of physics and chemistry for extraterrestrial life.

Main Results:

  • Life is defined as a preprogrammed, interactive, adaptive, and evolutionary process occurring in highly organized organic structures.
  • Living beings are the systems where this life process occurs.
  • Viruses are proposed to be living beings as they meet all defined vital characteristics and have influenced species evolution.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed definition of life encompasses viruses as living entities.
  • Extraterrestrial life is likely to be similar to terrestrial life due to universal physical and chemical laws.
  • The concept of the inexorability of life supports the universality of life's emergence and characteristics.