Life

Temporal range: 3770–0 Ma

d. Archean Proterozoic a. (possible Hadean origin)
Archean – present

Diverse forms of life on a coral reef

Scientific classification
Domains and Supergroups
Life on Earth:

 Cellular life
 Domain Bacteria
 Domain Archaea
 Domain Eukaryota
 Diaphoretickes
 Archaeplastida (includes plants)
 Haptista
 Cryptista
 TSAR
 "Excavata"
 Provora
 Ancyromonadida
 CRuMs
 Hemimastigophora
 Amorphea (includes animals and fungi)
 Parakaryon myojinensis (incertae sedis)
 Non-cellular life
 Viruses[a]
 Virusoids
 Viroids

Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-
sustaining processes, from matter that does not. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for
homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction.
All life over time eventually reaches a state of death, and none is immortal. Many philosophical
definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organizing systems. Viruses in
particular make definition difficult as they replicate only in host cells. Life exists all over the Earth
in air, water, and soil, with many ecosystems forming the biosphere. Some of these are harsh
environments occupied only by extremophiles.
Life has been studied since ancient times, with theories such as Empedocles's materialism asserting
that it was composed of four eternal elements, and Aristotle's hylomorphism asserting that living
things have souls and embody both form and matter. Life originated at least 3.5 billion years ago,
resulting in a universal common ancestor. This evolved into all the species that exist now, by way of
many extinct species, some of which have left traces as fossils. Attempts to classify living things,
too, began with Aristotle. Modern classification began with Carl Linnaeus's system of binomial
nomenclature in the 1740s.
Living things are composed of biochemical molecules, formed mainly from a few core chemical
elements. All living things contain two types of large molecule, proteins and nucleic acids, the latter
usually both DNA and RNA: these carry the information needed by each species, including the
instructions to make each type of protein. The proteins, in turn, serve as the machinery which
carries out the many chemical processes of life. The cell is the structural and functional unit of life.
Smaller organisms, including prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), consist of small single cells.
Larger organisms, mainly eukaryotes, can consist of single cells or may be multicellular with more
complex structure. Life is only known to exist on Earth but extraterrestrial life is thought probable.
Artificial life is being simulated and explored by scientists and engineers.

Definitions
Challenge
The definition of life has long been a challenge for scientists and philosophers.[2][3][4] This is
partially because life is a process, not a substance.[5][6][7] This is complicated by a lack of
knowledge of the characteristics of living entities, if any, that may have developed outside Earth.[8]
[9] Philosophical definitions of life have also been put forward, with similar difficulties on how to
distinguish living things from the non-living.[10] Legal definitions of life have been debated,
though these generally focus on the decision to declare a human dead, and the legal ramifications of
this decision.[11] At least 123 definitions of life have been compiled.[12]

Descriptive
Further information: Organism
Since there is no consensus for a definition of life, most current definitions in biology are
descriptive. Life is considered a characteristic of something that preserves, furthers or reinforces its
existence in the given environment. This implies all or most of the following traits:[4][13][14][15]
[16][17]
1. Homeostasis: regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for
example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organisation: being structurally composed of one or more cells – the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: transformation of energy, used to convert chemicals into cellular components
(anabolism) and to decompose organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy for
homeostasis and other activities.
4. Growth: maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A growing organism
increases in size and structure.
 5. Adaptation: the evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes better able to live in its
habitat.[18][19][20]
6. Response to stimuli: such as the contraction of a unicellular organism away from external
chemicals, the complex reactions involving all the senses of multicellular organisms, or the
motion of the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun (phototropism), and chemotaxis.
7. Reproduction: the ability to produce new individual organisms, either asexually from a
single parent organism or sexually from two parent organisms.

Physics
Further information: Entropy and life
From a physics perspective, an organism is a thermodynamic system with an organised molecular
structure that can reproduce itself and evolve as survival dictates.[21][22] Thermodynamically, life
has been described as an open system which makes use of gradients in its surroundings to create
imperfect copies of itself.[23] Another way of putting this is to define life as "a self-sustained
chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution", a definition adopted by a NASA
committee attempting to define life for the purposes of exobiology, based on a suggestion by Carl
Sagan.[24][25] This definition, however, has been widely criticised because according to it, a single
sexually reproducing individual is not alive as it is incapable of evolving on its own.[26]

Living systems
Main article: Living systems
Others take a living systems theory viewpoint that does not necessarily depend on molecular
chemistry. One systemic definition of life is that living things are self-organizing and autopoietic
(self-producing). Variations of this include Stuart Kauffman's definition as an autonomous agent or
a multi-agent system capable of reproducing itself, and of completing at least one thermodynamic
work cycle.[27] This definition is extended by the evolution of novel functions over time.[28]

Death
Main article: Death

African buffalo, are recycled by the ecosystem, providing energy

and nutrients for living organisms.
Death is the termination of all vital functions or life processes in an organism or cell.[29][30] One
of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. Death would seem to refer to
either the moment life ends, or when the state that follows life begins.[30] However, determining
when death has occurred is difficult, as cessation of life functions is often not simultaneous across
organ systems.[31] Such determination, therefore, requires drawing conceptual lines between life
and death. This is problematic because there is little consensus over how to define life. The nature
of death has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of
philosophical inquiry. Many religions maintain faith in either a kind of afterlife or reincarnation for
the soul, or resurrection of the body at a later date.[32]

Viruses
Main article: Virus

Adenoviruses as seen under an electron microscope

Whether or not viruses should be considered as alive is controversial.[33][34] They are most often
considered as just gene coding replicators rather than forms of life.[35] They have been described as
"organisms at the edge of life"[36] because they possess genes, evolve by natural selection,[37][38]
and replicate by making multiple copies of themselves through self-assembly. However, viruses do
not metabolise and they require a host cell to make new products. Virus self-assembly within host
cells has implications for the study of the origin of life, as it may support the hypothesis that life
could have started as self-assembling organic molecules.[39][40]

History of study
Materialism
Main article: Materialism
Some of the earliest theories of life were materialist, holding that all that exists is matter, and that
life is merely a complex form or arrangement of matter. Empedocles (430 BC) argued that
everything in the universe is made up of a combination of four eternal "elements" or "roots of all":
earth, water, air, and fire. All change is explained by the arrangement and rearrangement of these
four elements. The various forms of life are caused by an appropriate mixture of elements.[41]
Democritus (460 BC) was an atomist; he thought that the essential characteristic of life was having
a soul (psyche), and that the soul, like everything else, was composed of fiery atoms. He elaborated
on fire because of the apparent connection between life and heat, and because fire moves.[42] Plato,
in contrast, held that the world was organised by permanent forms, reflected imperfectly in matter;
forms provided direction or intelligence, explaining the regularities observed in the world.[43] The
mechanistic materialism that originated in ancient Greece was revived and revised by the French
philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650), who held that animals and humans were assemblages of
parts that together functioned as a machine. This idea was developed further by Julien Offray de La
Mettrie (1709–1750) in his book L'Homme Machine.[44] In the 19th century the advances in cell
theory in biological science encouraged this view. The evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin
(1859) is a mechanistic explanation for the origin of species by means of natural selection.[45] At
the beginning of the 20th century Stéphane Leduc (1853–1939) promoted the idea that biological
processes could be understood in terms of physics and chemistry, and that their growth resembled
that of inorganic crystals immersed in solutions of sodium silicate. His ideas, set out in his book La
biologie synthétique,[46] were widely dismissed during his lifetime, but has incurred a resurgence
of interest in the work of Russell, Barge and colleagues.[47]

Hylomorphism
Main article: Hylomorphism

structure of the souls of plants, animals, and

humans, according to Aristotle
Hylomorphism is a theory first expressed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (322 BC). The
application of hylomorphism to biology was important to Aristotle, and biology is extensively
covered in his extant writings. In this view, everything in the material universe has both matter and
form, and the form of a living thing is its soul (Greek psyche, Latin anima). There are three kinds of
souls: the vegetative soul of plants, which causes them to grow and decay and nourish themselves,
but does not cause motion and sensation; the animal soul, which causes animals to move and feel;
and the rational soul, which is the source of consciousness and reasoning, which (Aristotle
believed) is found only in man.[48] Each higher soul has all of the attributes of the lower ones.
Aristotle believed that while matter can exist without form, form cannot exist without matter, and
that therefore the soul cannot exist without the body.[49]
This account is consistent with teleological explanations of life, which account for phenomena in
terms of purpose or goal-directedness. Thus, the whiteness of the polar bear's coat is explained by
its purpose of camouflage. The direction of causality (from the future to the past) is in contradiction
with the scientific evidence for natural selection, which explains the consequence in terms of a prior
cause. Biological features are explained not by looking at future optimal results, but by looking at
the past evolutionary history of a species, which led to the natural selection of the features in
question.[50]

Spontaneous generation
Main article: Spontaneous generation
Spontaneous generation was the belief that living organisms can form without descent from similar
organisms. Typically, the idea was that certain forms such as fleas could arise from inanimate matter
such as dust or the supposed seasonal generation of mice and insects from mud or garbage.[51]
The theory of spontaneous generation was proposed by Aristotle,[52] who compiled and expanded
the work of prior natural philosophers and the various ancient explanations of the appearance of
organisms; it was considered the best explanation for two millennia. It was decisively dispelled by
the experiments of Louis Pasteur in 1859, who expanded upon the investigations of predecessors
such as Francesco Redi.[53][54] Disproof of the traditional ideas of spontaneous generation is no
longer controversial among biologists.[55][56][57]

Vitalism
Main article: Vitalism
Vitalism is the belief that there is a non-material life-principle. This originated with Georg Ernst
Stahl (17th century), and remained popular until the middle of the 19th century. It appealed to
philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Wilhelm Dilthey,[58] anatomists like
Xavier Bichat, and chemists like Justus von Liebig.[59] Vitalism included the idea that there was a
fundamental difference between organic and inorganic material, and the belief that organic material
can only be derived from living things. This was disproved in 1828, when Friedrich Wöhler
prepared urea from inorganic materials.[60] This Wöhler synthesis is considered the starting point
of modern organic chemistry. It is of historical significance because for the first time an organic
compound was produced in inorganic reactions.[59]
During the 1850s Hermann von Helmholtz, anticipated by Julius Robert von Mayer, demonstrated
that no energy is lost in muscle movement, suggesting that there were no "vital forces" necessary to
move a muscle.[61] These results led to the abandonment of scientific interest in vitalistic theories,
especially after Eduard Buchner's demonstration that alcoholic fermentation could occur in cell-free
extracts of yeast.[62] Nonetheless, belief still exists in pseudoscientific theories such as
homoeopathy, which interprets diseases and sickness as caused by disturbances in a hypothetical
vital force or life force.[63]

Development
Life timeline
This box:

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−4500 —
– Water
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– Single-celled life
−4000 —
– Photosynthesis
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– Eukaryotes
−3500 —
– Multicellular life
—
– P
−3000 — l
– a
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– t
−2500 — s
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— Arthropods Molluscs
– Flowers
−2000 — Dinosaurs
–
— Mammals
– Birds
−1500 — Primates
– H
— a
– d
−1000 — e
– a
— n
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−500 —
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— A
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← Earth formed
← Earliest water
← LUCA
← Earliest fossils
← LHB meteorites
← Earliest oxygen
← Pongola glaciation*
← Atmospheric oxygen
← Huronian glaciation*
← Sexual reproduction
← Earliest multicellular life
← Earliest fungi
← Earliest plants
← Earliest animals
← Cryogenian ice age*
← Ediacaran biota
← Cambrian explosion
← Hirnantian glaciation*
← Earliest tetrapods
← Karoo ice age*
← Earliest apes / humans
← Quaternary ice age*
(million years ago)
*Ice Ages

Origin of life
Main article: Abiogenesis
The age of Earth is about 4.54 billion years.[64] Life on Earth has existed for at least 3.5 billion
years,[65][66][67][68] with the oldest physical traces of life dating back 3.7 billion years.[69][70]
Estimates from molecular clocks, as summarised in the TimeTree public database, place the origin
of life around 4.0 billion years ago.[71] Hypotheses on the origin of life attempt to explain the
formation of a universal common ancestor from simple organic molecules via pre-cellular life to
protocells and metabolism.[72] In 2016, a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor
was tentatively identified.[73]
The biosphere is postulated to have developed, from the origin of life onwards, at least some
3.5 billion years ago.[74] The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes biogenic graphite found in
3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks from Western Greenland[69] and microbial mat fossils
found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone from Western Australia.[70] More recently, in 2015,
"remains of biotic life" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia.[65] In 2017,
putative fossilised microorganisms (or microfossils) were announced to have been discovered in
hydrothermal vent precipitates in the Nuvvuagittuq Belt of Quebec, Canada that were as old as
4.28 billion years, the oldest record of life on Earth, suggesting "an almost instantaneous emergence
of life" after ocean formation 4.4 billion years ago, and not long after the formation of the Earth
4.54 billion years ago.[75]

Evolution
Main article: Evolution
Evolution is the change in heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive
generations. It results in the appearance of new species and often the disappearance of old ones.[76]
[77] Evolution occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection (including sexual
selection) and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics increasing or
decreasing in frequency within a population over successive generations.[78] The process of
evolution has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation.[79][80]

Fossils
Main article: Fossils
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of organisms from the remote past. The totality of
fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in layers (strata) of sedimentary rock
is known as the fossil record. A preserved specimen is called a fossil if it is older than the arbitrary
date of 10,000 years ago.[81] Hence, fossils range in age from the youngest at the start of the
Holocene Epoch to the oldest from the Archaean Eon, up to 3.4 billion years old.[82][83]

Extinction
Main article: Extinction
Extinction is the process by which a species dies out.[84] The moment of extinction is the death of
the last individual of that species. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining
this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively after a period of apparent absence.
Species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing habitat or against
superior competition. Over 99% of all the species that have ever lived are now extinct.[85][86][87]
[88] Mass extinctions may have accelerated evolution by providing opportunities for new groups of
organisms to diversify.[89]
Environmental conditions

Cyanobacteria dramatically changed the composition of life forms

on Earth by leading to the near-extinction of oxygen-intolerant organisms.
The diversity of life on Earth is a result of the dynamic interplay between genetic opportunity,
metabolic capability, environmental challenges,[90] and symbiosis.[91][92][93] For most of its
existence, Earth's habitable environment has been dominated by microorganisms and subjected to
their metabolism and evolution. As a consequence of these microbial activities, the physical-
chemical environment on Earth has been changing on a geologic time scale, thereby affecting the
path of evolution of subsequent life.[90] For example, the release of molecular oxygen by
cyanobacteria as a by-product of photosynthesis induced global changes in the Earth's environment.
Because oxygen was toxic to most life on Earth at the time, this posed novel evolutionary
challenges, and ultimately resulted in the formation of Earth's major animal and plant species. This
interplay between organisms and their environment is an inherent feature of living systems.[90]

Biosphere
Main article: Biosphere

Deinococcus geothermalis, a bacterium that thrives in geothermal

springs and deep ocean subsurfaces[94]
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed as the zone of life on Earth,
a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic radiation and heat from the interior of the Earth), and
largely self-regulating.[95] Organisms exist in every part of the biosphere, including soil, hot
springs, inside rocks at least 19 km (12 mi) deep underground, the deepest parts of the ocean, and at
least 64 km (40 mi) high in the atmosphere.[96][97][98] For example, spores of Aspergillus niger
have been detected in the mesosphere at an altitude of 48 to 77 km.[99] Under test conditions, life
forms have been observed to survive in the vacuum of space.[100][101] Life forms thrive in the
deep Mariana Trench,[102] and inside rocks up to 580 m (1,900 ft; 0.36 mi) below the sea floor
under 2,590 m (8,500 ft; 1.61 mi) of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States,[103]
[104] and 2,400 m (7,900 ft; 1.5 mi) beneath the seabed off Japan.[105] In 2014, life forms were
found living 800 m (2,600 ft; 0.50 mi) below the ice of Antarctica.[106][107] Expeditions of the
International Ocean Discovery Program found unicellular life in 120 °C sediment 1.2 km below
seafloor in the Nankai Trough subduction zone.[108] According to one researcher, "You can find
microbes everywhere—they're extremely adaptable to conditions, and survive wherever they
are."[103]

Range of tolerance
The inert components of an ecosystem are the physical and chemical factors necessary for life—
energy (sunlight or chemical energy), water, heat, atmosphere, gravity, nutrients, and ultraviolet
solar radiation protection.[109] In most ecosystems, the conditions vary during the day and from
one season to the next. To live in most ecosystems, then, organisms must be able to survive a range
of conditions, called the "range of tolerance".[110] Outside that are the "zones of physiological
stress", where the survival and reproduction are possible but not optimal. Beyond these zones are
the "zones of intolerance", where survival and reproduction of that organism is unlikely or
impossible. Organisms that have a wide range of tolerance are more widely distributed than
organisms with a narrow range of tolerance.[110]

Extremophiles
Further information: Extremophile

Deinococcus radiodurans is an extremophile that can resist extremes of

cold, dehydration, vacuum, acid, and radiation exposure.
To survive, some microorganisms have evolved to withstand freezing, complete desiccation,
starvation, high levels of radiation exposure, and other physical or chemical challenges. These
extremophile microorganisms may survive exposure to such conditions for long periods.[90][111]
They excel at exploiting uncommon sources of energy. Characterization of the structure and
metabolic diversity of microbial communities in such extreme environments is ongoing.[112]

Classification
Main article: Biological classification

Antiquity
Main article: Aristotle's biology
The first classification of organisms was made by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC),
who grouped living things as either plants or animals, based mainly on their ability to move. He
distinguished animals with blood from animals without blood, which can be compared with the
concepts of vertebrates and invertebrates respectively, and divided the blooded animals into five
groups: viviparous quadrupeds (mammals), oviparous quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibians), birds,
fishes and whales. The bloodless animals were divided into five groups: cephalopods, crustaceans,
insects (which included the spiders, scorpions, and centipedes), shelled animals (such as most
molluscs and echinoderms), and "zoophytes" (animals that resemble plants). This theory remained
dominant for more than a thousand years.[113]

Linnaean
In the late 1740s, Carl Linnaeus introduced his system of binomial nomenclature for the
classification of species. Linnaeus attempted to improve the composition and reduce the length of
the previously used many-worded names by abolishing unnecessary rhetoric, introducing new
descriptive terms and precisely defining their meaning.[114]
The fungi were originally treated as plants. For a short period Linnaeus had classified them in the
taxon Vermes in Animalia, but later placed them back in Plantae. Herbert Copeland classified the
Fungi in his Protoctista, including them with single-celled organisms and thus partially avoiding the
problem but acknowledging their special status.[115] The problem was eventually solved by
Whittaker, when he gave them their own kingdom in his five-kingdom system. Evolutionary history
shows that the fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.[116]
As advances in microscopy enabled detailed study of cells and microorganisms, new groups of life
were revealed, and the fields of cell biology and microbiology were created. These new organisms
were originally described separately in protozoa as animals and protophyta/thallophyta as plants,
but were united by Ernst Haeckel in the kingdom Protista; later, the prokaryotes were split off in the
kingdom Monera, which would eventually be divided into two separate groups, the Bacteria and the
Archaea. This led to the six-kingdom system and eventually to the current three-domain system,
which is based on evolutionary relationships.[117] However, the classification of eukaryotes,
especially of protists, is still controversial.[118]
As microbiology developed, viruses, which are non-cellular, were discovered. Whether these are
considered alive has been a matter of debate; viruses lack characteristics of life such as cell
membranes, metabolism and the ability to grow or respond to their environments. Viruses have been
classed into "species" based on their genetics, but many aspects of such a classification remain
controversial.[119]
The original Linnaean system has been modified many times, for example as follows:
Woese et
Linnaeus Haeckel Chatton Copeland Whittaker Cavalier-Smith
al.
1735[120] 1866[121] 1925[122] 1938[123] 1969[124] 1998,[125] 2015[126]
1990[117]
2 empires,
2 kingdoms 3 kingdoms 2 empires 4 kingdoms 5 kingdoms 3 domains
6/7 kingdoms
Bacteria Bacteria
Prokaryota Monera Monera
Archaea Archaea (2015)
(not treated) Protista
Eukaryota Eucarya "Protozoa"
Protoctista Protista
"Chromista"
Vegetabilia Plantae Plantae Plantae Plantae
Fungi Fungi
Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia
The attempt to organise the Eukaryotes into a small number of kingdoms has been challenged. The
Protozoa do not form a clade or natural grouping,[127] and nor do the Chromista (Chromalveolata).
[128]

Metagenomic
The ability to sequence large numbers of complete genomes has allowed biologists to take a
metagenomic view of the phylogeny of the whole tree of life. This has led to the realisation that the
majority of living things are bacteria, and that all have a common origin.[117][129]


Phylogenetic tree based on rRNA genes data (Woese et al., 1990)[117] showing the 3 life
domains, with the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) at its root


A 2016 metagenomic representation of the tree of life, unrooted, using ribosomal protein
sequences. Bacteria are at top (left and right); Archaea at bottom; Eukaryotes in green at
bottom right.[129]

Composition
Chemical elements
All life forms require certain core chemical elements for their biochemical functioning. These
include carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—the elemental macronutrients
for all organisms.[130] Together these make up nucleic acids, proteins and lipids, the bulk of living
matter. Five of these six elements comprise the chemical components of DNA, the exception being
sulfur. The latter is a component of the amino acids cysteine and methionine. The most abundant of
these elements in organisms is carbon, which has the desirable attribute of forming multiple, stable
covalent bonds. This allows carbon-based (organic) molecules to form the immense variety of
chemical arrangements described in organic chemistry.[131] Alternative hypothetical types of
biochemistry have been proposed that eliminate one or more of these elements, swap out an element
for one not on the list, or change required chiralities or other chemical properties.[132][133]

DNA
Main article: DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is a molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the
growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many
viruses. DNA and RNA are nucleic acids; alongside proteins and complex carbohydrates, they are
one of the three major types of macromolecule that are essential for all known forms of life. Most
DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix.
The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides since they are composed of simpler units called
nucleotides.[134] Each nucleotide is composed of a nitrogen-containing nucleobase—either
cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), or thymine (T)—as well as a sugar called deoxyribose and a
phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between
the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-
phosphate backbone. According to base pairing rules (A with T, and C with G), hydrogen bonds
bind the nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands to make double-stranded
DNA. This has the key property that each strand contains all the information needed to recreate the
other strand, enabling the information to be preserved during reproduction and cell division.[135]
Within cells, DNA is organised into long structures called chromosomes. During cell division these
chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing each cell its own
complete set of chromosomes. Eukaryotes store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus.[136]

Cells
Main article: Cell (biology)
Cells are the basic unit of structure in every living thing, and all cells arise from pre-existing cells
by division.[137][138] Cell theory was formulated by Henri Dutrochet, Theodor Schwann, Rudolf
Virchow and others during the early nineteenth century, and subsequently became widely accepted.
[139] The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of its cells, with energy flow
occurring within and between them. Cells contain hereditary information that is carried forward as a
genetic code during cell division.[140]
There are two primary types of cells, reflecting their evolutionary origins. Prokaryote cells lack a
nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles, although they have circular DNA and ribosomes.
Bacteria and Archaea are two domains of prokaryotes. The other primary type is the eukaryote cell,
which has a distinct nucleus bound by a nuclear membrane and membrane-bound organelles,
including mitochondria, chloroplasts, lysosomes, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and
vacuoles. In addition, their DNA is organised into chromosomes. All species of large complex
organisms are eukaryotes, including animals, plants and fungi, though with a wide diversity of
protist microorganisms.[141] The conventional model is that eukaryotes evolved from prokaryotes,
with the main organelles of the eukaryotes forming through endosymbiosis between bacteria and
the progenitor eukaryotic cell.[142]
The molecular mechanisms of cell biology are based on proteins. Most of these are synthesised by
the ribosomes through an enzyme-catalyzed process called protein biosynthesis. A sequence of
amino acids is assembled and joined based upon gene expression of the cell's nucleic acid.[143] In
eukaryotic cells, these proteins may then be transported and processed through the Golgi apparatus
in preparation for dispatch to their destination.[144]
Cells reproduce through a process of cell division in which the parent cell divides into two or more
daughter cells. For prokaryotes, cell division occurs through a process of fission in which the DNA
is replicated, then the two copies are attached to parts of the cell membrane. In eukaryotes, a more
complex process of mitosis is followed. However, the result is the same; the resulting cell copies are
identical to each other and to the original cell (except for mutations), and both are capable of further
division following an interphase period.[145]

Multicellular structure
Multicellular organisms may have first evolved through the formation of colonies of identical cells.
These cells can form group organisms through cell adhesion. The individual members of a colony
are capable of surviving on their own, whereas the members of a true multi-cellular organism have
developed specialisations, making them dependent on the remainder of the organism for survival.
Such organisms are formed clonally or from a single germ cell that is capable of forming the
various specialised cells that form the adult organism. This specialisation allows multicellular
organisms to exploit resources more efficiently than single cells.[146] About 800 million years ago,
a minor genetic change in a single molecule, the enzyme GK-PID, may have allowed organisms to
go from a single cell organism to one of many cells.[147]
Cells have evolved methods to perceive and respond to their microenvironment, thereby enhancing
their adaptability. Cell signalling coordinates cellular activities, and hence governs the basic
functions of multicellular organisms. Signaling between cells can occur through direct cell contact
using juxtacrine signalling, or indirectly through the exchange of agents as in the endocrine system.
In more complex organisms, coordination of activities can occur through a dedicated nervous
system.[148]

In the universe
Main articles: Extraterrestrial life, Astrobiology, and Astroecology
Though life is confirmed only on Earth, many think that extraterrestrial life is not only plausible,
but probable or inevitable,[149][150] possibly resulting in a biophysical cosmology instead of a
mere physical cosmology.[151] Other planets and moons in the Solar System and other planetary
systems are being examined for evidence of having once supported simple life, and projects such as
SETI are trying to detect radio transmissions from possible alien civilisations. Other locations
within the Solar System that may host microbial life include the subsurface of Mars, the upper
atmosphere of Venus,[152] and subsurface oceans on some of the moons of the giant planets.[153]
[154]
Investigation of the tenacity and versatility of life on Earth,[111] as well as an understanding of the
molecular systems that some organisms utilise to survive such extremes, is important for the search
for extraterrestrial life.[90] For example, lichen could survive for a month in a simulated Martian
environment.[155][156]
Beyond the Solar System, the region around another main-sequence star that could support Earth-
like life on an Earth-like planet is known as the habitable zone. The inner and outer radii of this
zone vary with the luminosity of the star, as does the time interval during which the zone survives.
Stars more massive than the Sun have a larger habitable zone, but remain on the Sun-like "main
sequence" of stellar evolution for a shorter time interval. Small red dwarfs have the opposite
problem, with a smaller habitable zone that is subject to higher levels of magnetic activity and the
effects of tidal locking from close orbits. Hence, stars in the intermediate mass range such as the
Sun may have a greater likelihood for Earth-like life to develop.[157] The location of the star within
a galaxy may also affect the likelihood of life forming. Stars in regions with a greater abundance of
heavier elements that can form planets, in combination with a low rate of potentially habitat-
damaging supernova events, are predicted to have a higher probability of hosting planets with
complex life.[158] The variables of the Drake equation are used to discuss the conditions in
planetary systems where civilisation is most likely to exist, within wide bounds of uncertainty.[159]
A "Confidence of Life Detection" scale (CoLD) for reporting evidence of life beyond Earth has
been proposed.[160][161]

Artificial
Main articles: Artificial life and Synthetic biology
Artificial life is the simulation of any aspect of life, as through computers, robotics, or
biochemistry.[162] Synthetic biology is a new area of biotechnology that combines science and
biological engineering. The common goal is the design and construction of new biological functions
and systems not found in nature. Synthetic biology includes the broad redefinition and expansion of
biotechnology, with the ultimate goals of being able to design and build engineered biological
systems that process information, manipulate chemicals, fabricate materials and structures, produce
energy, provide food, and maintain and enhance human health and the environment.[163]

See also
 Biology, the study of life
 Biosignature
 Carbon-based life
 Central dogma of molecular biology
 History of life
 Lists of organisms by population
 Viable system theory

Notes
1.
 1. Viruses are strongly believed not to descend from a common ancestor, with each realm
corresponding to separate instances of a virus coming into existence.[1]

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External links
 Vitae (BioLib)
 Wikispecies – a free directory of life
 Biota (Taxonomicon) (archived 15 July 2014)
 Entry on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 What Is Life? – by Jaime Green, The Atlantic (archived 5 December 2023)

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