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defining life

Submitted by Serendip Visitor on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 3:28pm.

After discussing this topic for a little over a minute, my brain started to hurt. I decided to look at the dictionary's opinion and I picked my two favorite modern day definitions:
1. the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.
2. the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, esp. metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment.
I really REALLY like the part about adaptation to environment.

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