Hat Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 a metabolism? I've read in many places now that "life" is very difficult to define. A big question in biology, paleontology, or science in general is "what is life?" or "how do we define life?". NASA's definition is "A self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution". But I'm just wondering why life shouldn't be defined as "anything with a metabolism". Has anything ever lived that didn't have a metabolism? Is there anything that is non-living that does have one? Thanks. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 What is Your definition of a metabolism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerogrower Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Wikipedia describes it as "Metabolism (from Greek: μεταβολή metabolē, "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms." Lets start with that. Very intriguing topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplomado Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 IMHO, nope; it is one of the reasons virus are considered nonliving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 As usual,i will contribute nothing of substance to the discussion,but will post some literature which might be pertinent to this disccussion 2012_HistPhilLifeSci_place-viruses-in-biology_LopezGarcia.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 HiggsLehman2014.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Anet- metab second.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 more by lopez: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 pigtherm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 stras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 intriguing!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 moreRussell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 metabolism and self sustaining chemical system are the same thing, but without Darwinian evolution, then the sun would be considered alive by that definition. Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 enzym Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 kinetic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 1 hour ago, aerogrower said: Wikipedia describes it as "Metabolism (from Greek: μεταβολή metabolē, "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms." Lets start with that. Very intriguing topic. By this definition the answer to the original question would have to be NO. 7 minutes ago, ashcraft said: metabolism and self sustaining chemical system are the same thing, but without Darwinian evolution, then the sun would be considered alive by that definition. Brent Ashcraft No it would not because there are no "living cell structures" in the sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hat Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 As far as the definition from Wikipedia (never to be trusted of course), and in regard to my own original question, I discovered this article from Cambridge on a hypotheses that metabolism could have arisen in Earth's early oceans even before life itself. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/metabolism-may-have-started-in-our-early-oceans-before-the-origin-of-life Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 3 hours ago, ynot said: No it would not because there are no "living cell structures" in the sun. How do you know that the sun is not a cell? It is not a cell like life on earth contains, but it certainly meets many of the requirements. Brent "microbiologist for a day" Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hat Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 9 hours ago, ynot said: By this definition the answer to the original question would have to be NO. No it would not because there are no "living cell structures" in the sun. How does being "within living organisms" proclude metabolism from defining life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 3 minutes ago, Hat said: How does being "within living organisms" proclude metabolism from defining life? Your original question was "Has anything ever lived that did not have a metabolism?" My answer to that question is NO. Since having a metabolism is part of the definition of life, You can not have life without having a metabolism. It would be like having a tree without any wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 LUCAetc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 membrane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hat Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 25 minutes ago, ynot said: Your original question was "Has anything ever lived that did not have a metabolism?" My answer to that question is NO. Since having a metabolism is part of the definition of life, You can not have life without having a metabolism. It would be like having a tree without any wood. Right, you cannot have life without a metabolism, but I said "anything with a metabolism", not life should be defined as "a metabolism". If you can't have life without a metabolism, and you can't have a metabolism without life, than why not define life as "anything with a metabolism "? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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