News tagged with living organism
Scientists Explain Why Computers Crash But We Don't
(PhysOrg.com) -- Nature and software engineers face similar design challenges in creating control systems. The different solutions they employ help explain why living organisms tend to malfunction less than ...
May 03, 2010 |
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Of microorganisms and man: First large-scale test confirms Darwin's theory of universal common ancestry
More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ...
May 12, 2010 |
4.3 / 5 (65) |
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NASA scientist finds 'alien life' fossils
A NASA scientist's claim that he found tiny fossils of alien life in the remnants of a meteorite has stirred both excitement and skepticism, and is being closely reviewed by 100 experts.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 06, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (50) |
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Hydrocarbons in the deep Earth?
The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 26, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (43) |
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Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe
In today's issue of the journal Nature, astronomers report that organic compounds of unexpected complexity exist throughout the Universe. The results suggest that complex organic compounds are not the sole d ...
Oct 26, 2011 |
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New research rejects 80-year theory of 'primordial soup' as the origin of life
For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a 'primordial soup' of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the 'soup' theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper ...
Feb 02, 2010 |
4.3 / 5 (37) |
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Scientists Reproduce a Building Block of Life in Laboratory
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory.
Nov 06, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (28) |
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Scientists construct synthetic proteins that sustain life
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a groundbreaking achievement that could help scientists "build" new biological systems, Princeton University scientists have constructed for the first time artificial proteins that enable ...
Jan 06, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (27) |
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Chemists see first building blocks to life on Earth
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun.
May 13, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (25) |
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Scientists decipher 3 billion-year-old genomic fossils
(PhysOrg.com) -- About 580 million years ago, life on Earth began a rapid period of change called the Cambrian Explosion, a period defined by the birth of new life forms over many millions of years that ultimately ...
Dec 19, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (24) |
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New finding may hold key to Gaia hypothesis of Earth as living organism
(Phys.org) -- Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 15, 2012 |
3.4 / 5 (33) |
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Professor's hypothesis may be game changer for evolutionary theory
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new hypothesis posed by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, associate professor and colleagues could be a game changer in the evolution arena. The hypothesis suggests some species are ...
Apr 04, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (22) |
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'Stress' protein could halt aging process, say scientists
HSP10 (Heat Shock Protein), helps monitor and organise protein interactions in the body, and responds to environmental stresses, such as exercise and infection, by increasing its production inside cells. Researchers at Liverpool, ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
May 24, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (19) |
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Live long and prosper, Xanthoria elegans
(PhysOrg.com) -- Space is a hostile environment for living things, but small organisms on the Expose-E experiment unit outside Europe's Columbus ISS laboratory module have resisted the solar UV radiation, ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 01, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (18) |
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Earth's oldest fossils boost hopes for life on Mars
(PhysOrg.com) -- Microfossils found in Australia show that more than 3.4 billion years ago, bacteria thrived on an Earth that had no oxygen, a finding that boosts hopes life has existed on Mars, a study published ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (17) |
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Life
Life on Earth:
Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes ("alive," "living"), from those which do not —either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate."
In biology, the science that studies living organisms, "life" is the condition which distinguishes active organisms from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity and the continual change preceding death. A diverse array of living organisms (life forms) can be found in the biosphere on Earth, and properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria — are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information. Living organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means.
In philosophy and religion, the conception and nature of life varies, and offer interpretations in the frameworks of existence and consciousness, and touch on many other related issues, such as, ontology, value, life stance, purpose, conceptions of God, the soul and the afterlife.
For more information about Life, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
