What's the difference between nonlife and life? A biologist reflects on the qualities that define life.
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What’s the difference between nonlife and life? To answer this question, we first need to define life. I’ll lay out what are
to me the key hallmarks of life, and then offer a response that flows from such an understanding.
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
Discover about the Characteristics of Living Things:
Cellular Organization
Genetic Control
Reproduction
Growth
Metabolism
Adaptation
Sensitivity/Response
Movement
What’s the difference between nonlife and life? To answer this question, we first need to define life. I’ll lay out what are
to me the key hallmarks of life, and then offer a response that flows from such an understanding.
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
Discover about the Characteristics of Living Things:
Cellular Organization
Genetic Control
Reproduction
Growth
Metabolism
Adaptation
Sensitivity/Response
Movement
Introduction to Life Science and The Theories on the Origin of LifeSimple ABbieC
I. Introduction to Life Science
II. The Concept of Life
III. Characteristics of Life
IV. Theories on the Origin of Life
V. Unifying Themes in the Study of Life
Nestled between two rivers, the world's first major city sprang up in a fertile region called Mesopotamia.
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What do you know about the Big Bang? Start off by judging a few claims before diving into the lesson.
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Introduction to Life Science and The Theories on the Origin of LifeSimple ABbieC
I. Introduction to Life Science
II. The Concept of Life
III. Characteristics of Life
IV. Theories on the Origin of Life
V. Unifying Themes in the Study of Life
Nestled between two rivers, the world's first major city sprang up in a fertile region called Mesopotamia.
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
What do you know about the Big Bang? Start off by judging a few claims before diving into the lesson.
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More than 2,000 years ago, Eratosthenes calculated the spherical size of the Earth with reasonable accuracy.
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How does gold get from the Earth's surface to a cell phone? Choose a commodity and explore its journey from raw resource to finished product!
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Students put themselves in the shoes of an ancient adventurer traveling the Silk Road, as Peter Stark describes what it was like to re-enact the journey. Discuss any insights that emerge and the benefits of examining history from this and other perspectives.
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The horse, once hunted and later domesticated, helped advance human communication and transportation, accelerating global change.
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Big History is about understanding the complete picture of the Universe, our planet, and how humans interact with each other and our environment. Sometimes you need to take a broad view to understand how you fit into the big picture, and at other times you need to take a closer look. It’s really understanding both perspectives that makes Big History unique. This opening activity is intended to pique your curiosity. We’re going to explore what might have happened on Easter Island. Was it famine? Disease? A natural disaster? Or something else altogether?
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A brief journey through the life and work of the father of modern observational astronomy.
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What Makes a Thing Living”Biology is the many-faceted study of.docxhelzerpatrina
What Makes a Thing “Living”?
Biology is the many-faceted study of living things. But what, exactly, is a living thing? Some of our definition comes directly from the work of Pasteur, Mendel, and others. Their work demonstrated that life can come only from other life. That means that all living things must reproduce. They pass genetic information on to their offspring—and all living things do this with DNA. This genetic information helps determine the physical structure of the offspring.
As Mendel and Morgan observed, an offspring’s physical structure can vary. This variation, sometimes called diversity, may have fortunate or unfortunate effects for the individual, but it helps the species survive. If a given population has numerous variations in its gene pool (all of the genes present in the population), the population is more likely to have at least some members that can survive an environmental change. Over time, these individual variations accumulate, reshaping the population in new ways. This is the nature of evolution. Because the species can only continue living via reproduction, the species is continuous over time.
Living things also detect and respond to stimuli. A stimulus is a change, event, or substance that causes an organism to act. In animals and human beings, stimuli can be detected with eyes, ears, nose, touch, or taste buds. For example, you step outside and feel drops of rain on your head. You go back inside and get an umbrella. The raindrops are the stimulus. They were detected by your sense of touch. You responded by getting an umbrella. Pain is another example of a stimulus. If you stub your toe, the pain causes you to move backward or flinch. Drugs, chemicals, and electricity can also be stimuli. The important factor is that stimuli provoke responses.
What else do all living things have in common? For every individual, from a bacterium to a blue whale, life begins and ends. In the stretch of time between those two phenomena, the living thing must, in essence, work to stay alive. Whether it feeds on insects or sunlight, every living thing must consume enough energy that its cells can carry out all their internal processes. These processes include building new cells for growth, removing dead cells and waste matter, helping the individual reproduce, and so forth. These processes are chemical; they depend on chemical reactions
that can take place only under certain circumstances. Therefore, a living thing’s body must maintain those circumstances. These circumstances are often called the life form’s internal environment. Maintaining that environment—in other words, working to live—is called homeostasis.
All living things do the following:
■ Reproduce.
■ Pass along their traits through DNA.
■ Consume energy sources and expel waste products to maintain homeostasis.
■ Respond to their environments.
■ Respond to stimulus.
■ Change over time.
■ Can differ as individuals while still being part of a species.
■ Consist of biomole ...
A key question for personality psychologists is Are we what .docxsleeperharwell
A key question for personality psychologists is: “Are we what we are because of
nature or because of nurture?” When the question is phrased in this manner,
neither answer can be correct, for the answers are not mutually exclusive. The
premise of the question itself is wrong. We are what we are because of how
nature and nurture interact; it is not a question of either/or. There clearly are
both inborn and social-cultural influences on the individual. Genetics and
environment—nature and nurture—regulate and guide each person.
In Chapter 1 we examine some of the innate determinants of personality
and behavior. We observe that, as products of a long evolutionary history, hu-
man beings are predisposed to certain patterns of behavior. In addition, spe-
cific genetic blueprints provide the foundation for personality and behavior.
But it is evident that individuals’ personalities are greatly influenced by the
contexts that surround them and by the experiences they have had. Individu-
als brought up in different cultures or social classes behave differently. If one
wants to predict what an individual is doing or thinking at a given time, some
of the best predictors are the point in history when the individual was born and
where he or she is living. In Chapter 2 we examine some of these social and
cultural influences as well as other kinds of environmental influences.
Culture not only influences individuals; it also influences psychological the-
ories themselves. There is increasing reason to believe that the “grand theories”
of Western psychology reflect certain biases about the nature of people that
characterize Western culture.
Chapters 1 and 2 do not attempt to give complete accounts of the genetics of
personality or the social determinants of action; full courses are devoted to these
topics. Rather, we introduce the context of the person: an individual with unique
predispositions who is nevertheless modifiable and shaped by surroundings.
Innate and Environmental
Determinants of Personality 1PART
CHAPTER 1
Genetic Determinants
of Personality
CHAPTER 2
Contextual Aspects
of Personality and
Behavior
Source: Ollyy/Shutterstock.com.
3
Genetic Determinants of Personality
Charles Darwin introduced the idea that the human species is the product
of a long period of evolution in The Origin of Species and Descent of Man.
His arguments had an enormous influence on the field of personality. First,
his theory of evolution assumed scientific determinism—that is, the theory
assumed that the most complex aspects of behavior in all species are sub-
ject to scientific and rational analysis and are not due to accident or divine
intervention. This principle was accepted by psychologists in their study of
both nonhuman and human behavior. Second, Darwin focused attention on
the function or adaptive value of biological structures and behavior. Psychol-
ogists have been guided by this viewpoint as they search for the usefu.
If you look around you will see a large variety of living organisms, be itpotted plants, insects, birds, your pets or other animals and plants. Thereare also several organisms that you cannot see with your naked eye butthey are all around you.
“To what extent has the Modern Revolution been a positive or a negative force?” is the driving question for Unit 9. The purpose of this activity is to apply Unit 9’s driving question
to a modern-day infrastructure development: the Interoceanic Highway (La Carretera). Construction on La Carretera, which connects the east and west coasts of South America, began in the early twenty-first century. By studying the scenes depicted in a photojournalist’s photographic essay, students will come to their own conclusions about the extent to which this road has been a positive or negative force as related to certain trends and topics (economic development and natural environment, for example). This activity will also help prepare students for Investigation 9, in which they’re asked to identify good and bad outcomes of trends referenced in the Investigation texts.
This activity will give students a chance to review some of what they learned in this lesson, and use it to think more deeply about what and how they would communicate with an alien species.
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Circling one star among hundreds of billions, in one galaxy among a hundred billion more, in a Universe that is vast and expanding ever faster – perhaps toward infinity. It’s easy to forget that we live in a place of astonishing grandeur and mystery.
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Unit 9: Comparing the Costs of Renewable and Conventional Energy SourcesBig History Project
You can’t get too far in a discussion about the nation’s electric power sector without running into the question of costs.
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This quick activity will get students brainstorming about life on Mars and what they would need to survive there.
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Use www.gapminder.org/data to fill out the data in each of the tables below. To find the data you need, make sure that you have the name of the category. On the gapminder.org/data page, you’ll see a table called “List of indicators in “Gapminder World.” Beneath that title, on the right side of the table, find the
Search box. Type the name of the category into that search area. Once you find the category, click on the magnifying glass on the right. That link will have the data you need to fill out each of the tables below.
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Spanning three centuries of history, from the dawn of the industrial age to modern times, three diverse
thinkers developed their own landmark theories on commerce, labor, and the global economy.
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In the final essay of a four-part series, David Christian explains
how advances in communication and transportation accelerated
collective learning.
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Lesson 9.2 Activity: The Impact of Population Growth EssayBig History Project
For this closing activity, students will construct an essay in which they discuss what they think are the three biggest impacts of human population growth in the modern era. By looking more closely at population growth, they will deepen their understanding of the impact of acceleration and will think about themselves in relation to population growth and the effect it might have on their own futures.
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Unit 8: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human SocietiesBig History Project
Jared Mason Diamond (1937 — ) is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently a professor of geography and of physiology at UCLA. His 1997 book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies, from which the following passages are excerpted, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. The basic premise of the book is to explain why Eurasian civilizations have survived
and conquered others, while refuting the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to intellectual, moral, or genetic superiority.
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Making comparisons is an important intellectual tool for all people and especially for historians and scientists. Historians, in particular, make comparisons across time to understand what
has changed and what has remained constant. This question looks at the spread of plague and our collective reaction to plague at two different times in human history—the fourteenth century and the nineteenth century. Such a comparison enables us to see clearly how we have changed.
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Lesson 8.3 Activity: Revising Investigation Writing - Sentence Starters Part 2Big History Project
Students have examined and revised an Investigation writing sample based on Criteria A, B, and C of the rubric. Now, they’ll undergo the same process with a peer essay. In addition, they’ll do this alone instead of in groups. So, although the process is the same as in the last Investigation writing activity, this one might be more difficult since students will move away from group work and will complete this worksheet on their own. However, it’s important for students to be able to accomplish this exercise on their own since in the next lesson, they’ll apply this same process to their own writing. Again, while the categories in the rubric are a useful tool for initially understanding the different elements of writing, they need to be looked at as a whole since the areas of focus are interrelated.
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Unit 8: When Humans Became Inhumane: The Atlantic Slave TradeBig History Project
Once Europeans had figured out how to be effective middlemen — buying and selling silver, tea, and fur, they turned to figuring out how to also become producers of the commodities they were trading.
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Unit 8: Investigating the Consequences of the Columbian ExchangeBig History Project
A new era in human history began in 1492 as the four world zones became connected. For the first time, humans created truly global networks.
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The account of the travels of the Muslim legal scholar Ibn Battuta in the first half of the fourteenth century reveals the wide scope of the Muslim world at that time.
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This collection of biographies provides students with detailed information about the voyages of these explorers including information about their motivation and how they inspired future generations of explorers. These men opened the door to a more interconnected world as the contacts they made helped to create connections between distant peoples and stimulate the growth of exchange networks and long-distance trade.
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Lesson 7.2 Activity: Essay - Were They Pushed or Did They Jump?Big History Project
You’re going to pick a civilization you’ve already researched, and then use the information from your Early Civilizations Museum Project, your Comparing More Civilizations Worksheet, and your Rise, Fall, and Collapse of Civilizations Worksheet to write a five-paragraph essay about whether that civilization was pushed (external forces were the main cause of its downfall) or it jumped (something internal was responsible—they were their own worst enemy). A “pushed” example: Two empires went to war. You might say the winning empire “pushed” the losing empire into collapse. An example of a civilization having “jumped” can be found in the Easter Island Activity earlier in the course: One of the theories for the collapse of Easter Island is that the inhabitants depleted the natural resources they needed to survive. The people were, in a sense, the cause of their own destruction—they “jumped.”
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Lesson 7.2 Activity: Social Status, Power, and Human BurialsBig History Project
This activity provides students with an opportunity to start thinking about the impact that farming can have on the way humans live and relate to each other. It will also allow them to think about the kinds of questions archaeologists and historians might ask when they must rely upon artifacts rather than written evidence to learn about the past.
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Unit 7: Greco-Roman: Early Experiments in Participatory GovernmentBig History Project
Instead of rule by a single person, Athens and Rome developed governments with widespread participation by male elites, which lasted about 170 years in Athens and 480 years in Rome.
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During the same narrow sliver of cosmic time, cities, states, and civilizations emerged independentlyin several places around the world.
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Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
3. What’s the difference
between nonlife and life?
To answer this question,
we first need to define
life. I’ll lay out what are
to me the key hallmarks
of life, and then offer a
response that flows from
such an understanding.
2
3
4. Every organism is a self
A key concept is that every organism is a self, a being. To be a “self” is to
engage in two fundamental activities: self-generation and self-maintenance.
Self-generation
Self-generation entails the making of a self. If you’re a single-celled organism like a yeast, this involves starting out small, growing large, and dividing
into two small daughter-yeasts that start the process again. If you’re a multicelled organism like a human, this involves starting out as a single fertilized
egg, developing from an embryo to a fetus, and then taking the path from
newborn to old age.
In all organisms on our planet today, the key players in self-generation
are proteins. When a particular protein is made, it folds up into a particular
shape, with crevices and bumps — something like a jigsaw-puzzle piece in
three dimensions. These shapes allow proteins to do two major activities.
The first is to interact with other proteins, with the bumps fitting precisely
into the crevices, to form the thousands of different kinds of chemical structures that make up a cell. Most parts of a cell are constructed from proteins,
including the filaments that act as cellular skeletons, the channels that let
ions in and out of the cells, and the receptors that let the self know what’s
going on in the environment.
The second activity of proteins is to serve as enzymes, which allow chemical reactions inside the cell to take place with remarkable efficiency and
accuracy. Again, shape is the key. The bumps and crevices bring together
the participants in a chemical reaction and ensure that they form the proper
kinds of chemical bonds with one another.
Self-maintenance
Critical to self-generation is obtaining the molecules and the energy that the
self needs to run the store. One strategy is to use photosynthesis, turning
the Sun’s light energy into food. The second is to ingest molecules that are
made as a consequence of photosynthesis — that is, to eat — and then break
4
5
5. Every organism is instructed
All the proteins we’ve been thinking about are encoded in genes embedded
in DNA molecules. Each gene specifies the amino-acid sequence of a particular protein, and that sequence then defines how the protein will fold up
into its functional shape.
them down, using the energy released to drive self-generation. Here again,
the shapes of enzymes are critical, but instead of controlling the formation
of chemical bonds as in self-generation, they deftly supervise the breaking
of chemical bonds, coupling this activity with the formation of energyrich molecules like ATP (adenosine triphosphate) that keep the cell going.
Self-maintenance also entails self-protection, avoiding environmental
hazards, predators, and disease.
6
The full set of genes necessary to pull together a self-generating and selfmaintaining self is called a “genome.” A yeast genome and a human genome
have many genes in common, notably those concerned with the universal
project of self-maintenance, and many others that are distinctive. Daughter
organisms inherit copies of genomes from parent organisms, allowing that
kind of organism to continue and spread.
Embedded in the organization of genomes is the capacity to express certain
genes, and hence certain proteins, on some occasions and not others.
When it’s time to copy DNA into daughter molecules, the genes encoding the
DNA-copying enzymes are “switched on”; when the copying process is
completed, these genes are “switched off.” When it’s time for you to make
red blood cells, genes encoding the hemoglobin protein are switched on
in certain bone-marrow cells but remain switched off in most of the cells in
your body. Thus a genome isn’t just a collection of genes; it functions continuously to instruct self-generation and self-maintenance.
7
6. Every organism can evolve
Although DNA is copied with remarkable accuracy, mistakes sometimes
happen, giving rise to mutant genes that encode variant amino-acid sequences
and hence give rise to proteins with variant shapes. Also occurring are
“mutations” that change the timing or magnitude of protein production.
The mutation may have no effect, at least in the short term, in which case
the mutant daughter may self-organize and self-maintain just like the
parent. At the other extreme, it may have disastrous consequences on selforganization and self-maintenance, and the daughter will not survive.
The most interesting mutations are those that generate instructions for a
viable daughter that is somewhat different from its parent. For example,
a parent duck may have delicate foot webbing while the webbing of a mutant
daughter may be extra-thick. What happens next is totally dependent on
environmental context. If the ducks hang out on mudflats, the mutant feet
may allow for surer footing, hence better opportunities for feeding and fleeing
predators, and the thick-footed trait will likely spread into future generations;
if the ducks live in grasslands, the mutant feet may slow things down and
the trait will be less likely to spread.
What I’ve just described is Darwinian evolution: inherited variations, coupled
with natural selection. The ability of living organisms to evolve has generated
the spectacular biodiversity that surrounds us, and without it, we humans
would never have shown up.
Ernst Haeckel’s 1879 illustration of the “tree of life” shows humans as the pinnacle of
evolution, a common view among early evolutionists
8
9
7. Every organism has purpose
So, with this sense of what life is, can we come up with a single characteristic that distinguishes life from nonlife? Is there one towering difference
between a mountain and a whale? After all, both are made of molecules.
Both engage in chemistry. Both change through time.
For me, the most interesting single generalization is that organisms are
purposive whereas nonlife is not. Organisms are about something, for
something: muscles are for movement; eyes are for seeing. Organisms have
goals. The short-term goal is to self-generate and self-maintain in a given
environmental context. The long-term goal is to pass genome copies on to
offspring, a goal that succeeds only if self-generation and self-maintenance
succeed. Mountains are splendid, to be sure, but in the end they aren’t goal
directed. They just are.
Taking this perspective, one could say that when life showed up on Earth,
something completely new showed up: the emergence of purpose. Whether
life, and hence purpose, exists anywhere else in the Universe is unknown
and may remain a mystery. Meanwhile, we can enjoy and revel in the astonishing purposiveness that surrounds us here on Earth.
Comparing words
Ursula Goodenough and David Christian describe the qualities that define
life in slightly different ways. Scholars don’t always use the same words.
This guide makes some connections:
David Christian
Metabolism
Self-generation
Homeostasis
Self-maintenance
Reproduction
Instructed and purposive
Adaptation
10
Ursula Goodenough
Evolvability
11