Biology the Meaning of Life

Life Shabitha Arumugarajah

What is life?
“What is life,” this may be a thought that many people ponder? Everyone holds a different perspective on life, I remember once my chemistry teacher telling me that “life is nothing but the transferring of electrons,” but a biologist or a poet might tell you otherwise.” According to the dictionary life is “ The condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to the environment through changes originating internally.” I believe that the best way to analyze what life is by distinguishing the differences of a livening and a non living organism as a living organism has life and a non living organism does not. Living organisms acquire six characteristics; they are able to reproduce, respond to the environment, they require organizations, they take in material and produce waste, they grow and develop and they require energy. Therefore life is just a name given to an organism that posses all the characteristics listed above. For example a plant responds to the environment by moving towards the sunlight to absorb the energy or by the opening up its leaves, it has the ability to reproduce through its seeds, plants need other organisms in order for it to survive, plants take in oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide, plants grow and they require the suns energy in order to survive. Therefore we would say that a plant is alive or has “life.”

How do we study life?
Life is studied in biology, biology is the study of life because in biology we analyze specimens, like micro organisms and bigger organisms like the human body through microscopes. We also further analyze the 6 characteristics of life in biology. By experimentation, and observing various things like cells and animals, and trying to establish fact by finding a pattern..

Why do we study about life in biology?
Well we study life to understand the basic reason why were here and how it developed in the single planet earth, Also to understand the interaction that happen between species and to help with the health field.