While letting my mind mosey about in the poop-laden pastures of my skull I discovered that I could NOT express a good definition of "life." I could think of any number of attributes, but couldn't actually define the word. Help!

Life is what happens to you until you die.

When I first read your question, I thought about something similar to proof's post. However, then I looked it up in Wikipedia and found this quote:

quote:

It is still a challenge for scientists and philosophers to define life in unequivocal terms.[6][7][8] Any definition must be sufficiently broad to encompass all life with which we are familiar, and it should be sufficiently general that, with it, scientists would not miss life that may be fundamentally different from earthly life.[9]

It's a very interesting question, Asa.

Maybe we should use it in a bluffing game?

We all know what life is; but what is it?

Life is any organism which comes from a parent, which feeds, grows, matures, propagates, withers and dies. But there may be some life forms which do not do some of these things.

Aw, gee, Asa--now I won't be able to sleep!

Wordmatic

I seem to recall when I was at school, our biology lessons spoke of the Eight Criteria of Living Things, which are:

1. They must breathe
2. They must eat
3. They must excrete
4. They must take up space
5. They must move
6. They must grow
7. They must reproduce
8. They must be Natural

Not all living things meet all the criteria, especially number 5, but all life forms must satisfy most of them.

It must vary from teacher to teacher. "Big H", my biology teacher at school had a list identical to Richard's except that numbers four and eight were omitted and "response to stimuli" was added

Here's a little challenge that I remember him setting us - though I can't remember the answers we had - for each of his seven requirements, find a form of life that doesn't meet it.

Respiration
Nutrition
Excretion
Motion
Growth
Reproduction
Response to Stimuli

Anyone care to suggest some. (Don't expect answers from me though, my last biology class was about forty years ago.)

Do single-celled amoebae breathe?

WM

Yes, it's called inspiration.