Does Life Have Defining Properties?
We begin with the difficult question, What is life? Although many attempts have been made to define life, simple definitions are doomed to failure. When we try to give life a simple definition, we look for fixed properties maintained throughout life's history. However, the properties that life exhibits today (pp. 3–10) are very different from those present at its origin. The history of life shows perpetual change, which we call evolution. As the genealogy of life progressed and branched from the earliest living form to the millions of species living today, new properties evolved and passed from parents to their offspring. Through this process, living systems have generated many rare and spectacular features that have no counterparts in the nonliving world. Unexpected properties emerge on many different lineages in life's evolutionary history, producing the great organismal diversity observed today.
We might try to define life on the basis of universal properties evident at its origin. Replication of molecules, for example, can be traced to life's origin and represents one of life's universal properties. Defining life based on properties present at its origin faces the major problem that these are the properties most likely to be shared by some nonliving forms. To study the origin of life, we must ask how organic molecules acquired the ability for precise replication. But where do we draw the line between those replicative processes that characterize life and those that are merely general chemical features of the matter from which life arose? Replication of complex crystalline structures in nonliving chemical assemblages might be confused, for example, with the replicative molecular properties associated with life. If we define life using only the most advanced properties that characterize the highly evolved living systems observed today, the nonliving world would not intrude on our definition, but we would eliminate the early forms of life from which all others descended and which give life its historical unity.
Ultimately our definition of life must be based on the common history of life on earth. Life's history of descent with modification gives it an identity and continuity that separates it from the nonliving world. We can trace this common history backward through time from the diverse forms observed today and in the fossil record to their common ancestor that arose in the atmosphere of the primitive earth (see The Origin and Chemistry of Life). All organisms forming part of this long history of hereditary descent from life's common ancestor are included in our concept of life.
We do not force life into a simple definition, but we can readily identify the living world through its history of common evolutionary descent and separate it from the nonliving. Many remarkable properties have arisen during life's history and are observed in various combinations among living forms. These properties, discussed in the next section, clearly identify their possessors as part of the unified historical entity called life. All such features occur in the most highly evolved forms of life, such as those that compose the animal kingdom. Because they are so important for maintenance and functioning of living forms that possess them, these properties should persist through life's future evolutionary history.
We might try to define life on the basis of universal properties evident at its origin. Replication of molecules, for example, can be traced to life's origin and represents one of life's universal properties. Defining life based on properties present at its origin faces the major problem that these are the properties most likely to be shared by some nonliving forms. To study the origin of life, we must ask how organic molecules acquired the ability for precise replication. But where do we draw the line between those replicative processes that characterize life and those that are merely general chemical features of the matter from which life arose? Replication of complex crystalline structures in nonliving chemical assemblages might be confused, for example, with the replicative molecular properties associated with life. If we define life using only the most advanced properties that characterize the highly evolved living systems observed today, the nonliving world would not intrude on our definition, but we would eliminate the early forms of life from which all others descended and which give life its historical unity.
Ultimately our definition of life must be based on the common history of life on earth. Life's history of descent with modification gives it an identity and continuity that separates it from the nonliving world. We can trace this common history backward through time from the diverse forms observed today and in the fossil record to their common ancestor that arose in the atmosphere of the primitive earth (see The Origin and Chemistry of Life). All organisms forming part of this long history of hereditary descent from life's common ancestor are included in our concept of life.
We do not force life into a simple definition, but we can readily identify the living world through its history of common evolutionary descent and separate it from the nonliving. Many remarkable properties have arisen during life's history and are observed in various combinations among living forms. These properties, discussed in the next section, clearly identify their possessors as part of the unified historical entity called life. All such features occur in the most highly evolved forms of life, such as those that compose the animal kingdom. Because they are so important for maintenance and functioning of living forms that possess them, these properties should persist through life's future evolutionary history.
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