Talk:Life

Semi-protected edit request on 17 December 2018

Please add:

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have died) or because they never had such functions and are classified as inanimate. Various forms of life exist, such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria. Biology is the science that studies life.

There is currently no consensus regarding the definition of life. One popular definition is that organisms are open systems that maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, have a life cycle, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, reproduce and evolve. Other definitions sometimes include non-cellular life forms such as viruses and viroids.

Abiogenesis is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but a gradual process of increasing complexity. Life on Earth first appeared as early as 4.28 billion years ago, soon after ocean formation 4.41 billion years ago, and not long after the formation of Earth 4.54 billion years ago.[1][2][3][4] The earliest known life forms are microfossils of bacteria.[5][6] Life on Earth is probably descended from an RNA world,[7] although RNA-based life may not have been the first life to have existed.[8][9] The classic 1952 Miller–Urey experiment and similar research demonstrated that most amino acids, the chemical constituents of the proteins used in all living organisms, can be synthesized from inorganic compounds under conditions intended to replicate those of the early Earth. Complex organic molecules occur in the Solar System and in interstellar space, and these molecules may have provided starting material for the development of life on Earth.[10][11][12][13]

Since its primordial beginnings, life on Earth has changed its environment on a geologic time scale, but it has also adapted to survive in most ecosystems and conditions. Some microorganisms, called extremophiles, thrive in physically or geochemically extreme environments that are detrimental to most other life on Earth. The cell is considered the structural and functional unit of life.[14][15] There are two kinds of cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic, both of which consist of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane and contain many biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. Cells reproduce through a process of cell division, in which the parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells.

In the past, there have been many attempts to define what is meant by "life" through obsolete concepts such as odic force, hylomorphism, spontaneous generation and vitalism, that have now been disproved by biological discoveries. Aristotle is considered to be the first person to classify organisms. Later, Carl Linnaeus introduced his system of binomial nomenclature for the classification of species. Eventually new groups and categories of life were discovered, such as cells and microorganisms, forcing significant revisions of the structure of relationships between living organisms. Though currently only known on Earth, life need not be restricted to it, and many scientists speculate in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Artificial life is a computer simulation or human-made reconstruction of any aspect of life, which is often used to examine systems related to natural life.

Death is the permanent termination of all biological processes which sustain an organism, and as such, is the end of its life. Extinction is the term describing the dying-out of a group or taxon, usually a species. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of organisms

Clunky and vague English

It is written here: The criteria can at times be ambiguous and may or may not define viruses, viroids, or potential synthetic life as "living".

For something to be "may" implies a may not - "may or may not" is not required as a condition. If it is "may", the opposite potential does not need to be stated.

All it should say is: ... can at time be ambiguous and may define viruses.

"Define" as in "include"? Or Define as in the criteria that defines the properties of what life is?

This can be simplified to: the criteria for what life is can be unclear, such as the question if viruses, viroids, or synthetic life can be classed as "life" or "living". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.159.103.154 (talk) 22:03, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

The sentence caught my interest (disdain) as well. It hasn't been fixed as of Feb 2020. First of all, OF COURSE criteria "can be" ambiguous - because obviously the criteria may be created within a context which is less than universal (i.e. the criteria assume a set of "priors"). A 'good' set of criteria would NOT be "ambiguous", again obviously. Secondly, I don't agree that it is useful for the sentence to link (some of) the fringe cases to its main point. Those are separate ideas and deserve separate sentences. I think it is most important that the reader learns that there is no unambiguous set of universal criteria. The criteria can at times be ambiguous and may or may not define viruses, viroids, or potential synthetic life as "living". Some of the other problems I have are: 3. "the criteria"? no(!) "the definitions" yes. 4. "...at times..." what has time have to do with it? 5. "define"?? shouldn't that be "include"? 6. More hypothetically, future in-silico (A.I.) might be classifiable as "living", I think. 7. The whole lead fails to distinguish between known knowns and known unknowns: the phrase "life as we know it" should occur up-front, imho. We can't say much about life as we don't know it, obviously. 8.The sentence presumes the reader understands that there are different definitions (rather than different expressions of one 'standard' definition). How about this:"Attempts to formulate a clear, definite, and universal definition for life have met with greater or lesser acceptance, but none are acceptable to everyone. There is still, to this day, no agreement whether viruses are 'living'. (Some advocate that viroids are living organisms as well.) Exceptional cases such as lab-made biomolecular systems which mimic living systems (some with components not found in any living system), called synthetic life and, conceptually, electronics-based (silicon) systems that may one day exist and seem to be living organisms, generally fail to meet most proposed definitions." I am tempted to replace the offending sentence with this. And I would if it wasn't so long-winded.98.21.246.194 (talk) 12:04, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

I agree that the treatment of viruses, viroids, and synthetic life is haphazard. Regarding all of your points, I would suggest editing the body of the article first, then changing the lede to reflect the sources and consensus gathered there. The edge cases of virus, viroid, and synthetic life deserve better treatment in the body of the article. For the time being, I am in favor of simplifying the treatment of these edge cases in the lead, which is already very long. Dag330 (talk) 20:28, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

This article sometimes displays as "life on Earth" in search results

Certain queries such as "Life on earth" result in a peculiar title for the article, with the word "life" not being capitalized. I'm not sure how this happens, nor how to change it, but it would likely be best to fix it due to the sheer frequency of the aforementioned search query.

Console.frog (talk) 05:16, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

I confirm that searching "life on Earth" on Google brings up this article with the strange capitalization. I have no idea why either. -- Luk ^talk 11:21, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

I suggest add an external link to WP: Extraterrestrial life since the article places extreme emphasis on life as understood on this planet. 2600:6C48:7006:200:B056:6066:1296:EF0B (talk) 22:12, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

"Man-made" substitution for "human-made"

In the introductory text it is stated:

Artificial life is a computer simulation or man-made reconstruction of any aspect of life...

(enphasis mine)

Could it be replaced by:

Artificial life is a computer simulation or human-made reconstruction of any aspect of life...

It is a neologism, but it would remove any shadow of gender bias in the subsconcient of the reader. Considering that artificial life is a field where gender bias can be damaging I would find it appropiate. --Feministo (talk) 07:23, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

 Done, Cheers, Rowan Forest (talk) 15:18, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

"Including" instead of "such as..."

Including is another word for such as, which makes it more like a encyclopedic definition. Should we change this to make the examples more specific? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joshua's Number9 (talk • contribs) 20:12, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

It's not really a synonym for "such as", which means "for example". Graham Beards (talk) 22:06, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 April 2021

{{subst:trim|1= be nice

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 16:37, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Biota (taxonomy)

Biota (taxonomy) redirects here, but is not explained in the article. -- Beland (talk) 04:51, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 August 2021

{{edit semi-protected|Life|answered=yes} Change:

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have died), or because they never had such functions and are classified as inanimate.

To:

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities from physical entities that have biological processes. signaling and self-sustaining processes are examples of life, whereas the absence of these processes either because such functions have ceased (they have died) or because they never had such functions are classified as inanimate. UniversalHumanTransendence (talk) 20:56, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

No, the suggestion does not make any sense. Graham Beards (talk) 21:09, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Ridiculous edits

@Kabel1927: Gain WP:CONSENSUS for your edits. Permanent is WP:V in WP:RS given. In case you want to imply life after death, that's not a fact, but a subjective belief. Wikipedia is biased for objective fact. Life after death, it is unknowable if it exists, and therefore not a fact. tgeorgescu (talk) 23:49, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 October 2021

I am a person who lost their account 5 years ago 2600:1700:4480:5680:FCEE:C905:D:8B99 (talk) 02:19, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Cannolis (talk) 02:37, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 March 2022

Ok make me edit, Please I have many things to add 136.158.31.158 (talk) 09:56, 22 March 2022 (UTC)