What it means to be living

Talon
What is life?

What does it mean to be living?

All living organisms have these characteristics- Organization, Responsiveness and Homeostasis, Energy use, Growth and Development, Reproduction.

Living vs. Non-Living

1) Organization- All organisms are made up of cells.
Cells are the smallest units of organisms
Organisms contain at least 1 cell
Each cell contains DNA- Deoxyriboncleic acid
DNA- contains the programming code for organization and function

2) Responsiveness and Homeostasis -Living things will respond to stimuli
Movement is usually the response
Homeostasis- Regulation of internal environment

3) Energy use- All organisms use food
Food comes directly or indirectly from the sun.
Plants- direct through photosynthesis
Animals- Indirectly through eating plants, or eating animals that ate plants.
Most organisms besides deep-sea archebacteria use oxygen in some way.
Autotroph- Can form organic compounds by itself, can make it’s own food.
Heterotroph- gets food from other organisms.

4) Growth and Development- Raw materials are used for growth
Development- Changes in organisms
Length of life varies from days to thousands of years.

5) Reproduction- All “living” things reproduce.
Varies from once every 20 minutes in some bacteria to every two years

Basic living needs are Space or a place to live and Raw materials, water is number 1.