Question asked by Filo student

When it comes to human beings, It is all the more difficult to define the living state. We observe patients lying in coma in hospitals virtually supported by machines which replace heart and lungs. The patient is otherwise brain-dead. The patient has no self-consciousness. Are such patients who never come back to normal life, living or non-living? In higher classes, you will come to know that all living phenomena are due to underlying interactions. Properties of tissues are not present in the constituent cells but arise as a result of interactions among the constituent cells. Similarly. properties of cellular organelles are not present in the molecular constituents of the organelle but arise as a result of interactions among the molecular components comprising the organelle. These interactions result in emergent properties at a higher level of organisation. This phenomenon is true in the hierarchy of organisational complexity at all levels. Therefore, we can say that living organisms are self-replicating, evolving and self-regulating interactive systems capable of responding to external stimuli. Blology is the story of life on earth. Biology is the story of evolution of living organisms on earth. All living organisms - present, past and future, are linked to one another by the sharing of the common genetic material, but to varying degrees.

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Updated on: Feb 22, 2023