Defining life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, December 04, 2013, 15:28 (4007 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw:This is a wonderfully fresh way of looking at the definition problem. He's probably right ... there's no dividing line. The continual congregation and disassembly of atoms, particles (and I would add cells) is what makes up the history of our universe and our planet. Since the behaviour of particles at quantum level is apparently too weird and wonderful for anyone to understand, why should we expect to understand and define it in terms of life and non-life?-I reproduced here a while ago that quantum mechanics plays a vital role in photosynthesis. I keep emphasizing that QM is at the basis of our reality. And yes the article shows that the exact definition of life is not present, just as we can't really define consciousness. Emergence is the problem