Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes ("alive," "living"), from those which do not —either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate." In biology, the science that studies living organisms, "life" is the condition which distinguishes active organisms from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity and the continual change preceding death. A diverse array of living organisms (life forms) can be found in the biosphere on Earth, and properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria — are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information. Living organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means. In philosophy and religion, the conception and nature of life varies, and offer interpretations in the frameworks of existence and consciousness, and touch on many other related issues, such as, ontology, value, life stance, purpose, conceptions of God, the soul and the afterlife.

A song by George Harrison

The art of living to the satisfaction of all.

A struggle for position in the "food lines". ;)

"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it." -Dave Barry

"Life" a rarely published weekly photo magazine from the Time-Life Company. Email me for subscription info.

Diamonds and Dust

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it All night long If you're going my way, I wanna drive it All night long

I know what it sounds like....in my head

Life is a chance to love. (at least, for me it is)

A series of biological functions.

a funny,funny riddle. :)~

Life is planning for the Future.

a waste of time...but,if you really wanna know,its a perception...

A game by Milton Bradley

Life is full of crap

Biologically being alive refers to being composed of 1 or more cells and being able to reproduce; maintain constant internal body conditions; respond to your environment; having evolutionary roots and a couple other things I can't remember right now. If you're asking from a philosophical standpoint: life is being present on the planet and moving towards some ultimate purpose.

1) "It is still a challenge for scientists and philosophers to define life in unequivocal terms. Any definition must be sufficiently broad to encompass all life with which we are familiar, and it should be sufficiently general that, with it, scientists would not miss life that may be fundamentally different from earthly life. - Biology: Since there is no unequivocal definition of life, the current understanding is descriptive. Therefore, life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit all or most of the following phenomena: 1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, electrolyte concentration or sweating to reduce temperature. 2. Organization: Being structurally composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life. 3. Metabolism: Transformation of energy by converting chemicals and energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life. 4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. 5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present. 6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism to external chemicals, to complex reactions involving all the senses of multicellular organisms. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun (phototropism) and by chemotaxis. 7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new individual organisms either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two parent organisms. - Proposed: To reflect the minimum phenomena required, some have proposed other biological definitions of life: - Living things are systems that tend to respond to changes in their environment, and inside themselves, in such a way as to promote their own continuation. - A network of inferior negative feedbacks (regulatory mechanisms) subordinated to a superior positive feedback (potential of expansion, reproduction). - A systemic definition of life is that living things are self-organizing and autopoietic (self-producing). Variations of this definition include Stuart Kauffman's definition as an autonomous agent or a multi-agent system capable of reproducing itself or themselves, and of completing at least one thermodynamic work cycle. - Viruses: Viruses are most often considered replicators rather than forms of life. They have been described as "organisms at the edge of life", since they possess genes, evolve by natural selection, and replicate by creating multiple copies of themselves through self-assembly. However, viruses do not metabolise and require a host cell to make new products. Virus self-assembly within host cells has implications for the study of the origin of life, as it may support the hypothesis that life could have started as self-assembling organic molecules. - Biophysics: Biophysicists have also commented on the nature and qualities of life forms—notably that they function on negative entropy. In more detail, according to physicists such as John Bernal, Erwin Schrödinger, Eugene Wigner, and John Avery, life is a member of the class of phenomena which are open or continuous systems able to decrease their internal entropy at the expense of substances or free energy taken in from the environment and subsequently rejected in a degraded form (see: entropy and life). - Living systems theory: In order to answer the question ‘What is life?’, some scientists have recently proposed that a general Living systems theory is required. Such general theory, arising out of the biological sciences, attempts to map general principles for how all living systems work. Instead of examining phenomena by attempting to break things down into component parts, a general living systems theory explores phenomena in terms of dynamic patterns of the relationships of organisms with their environment. Robert Rosen (1991) built on the assumption that the explanatory powers of the mechanistic worldview cannot help understand the realm of living systems. One of several important clarifications he made was to define a system component as "a unit of organization. A part with a function, i.e., a definite relation between part and whole." From this and other starting concepts, he developed a "relational theory of systems" that attempts to explain the special properties of life. Specifically, he identified the "nonfractionability of components in an organism" as the fundamental difference between living systems and 'biological machines.' A systems view of life treats environmental fluxes and biological fluxes together as a "reciprocity of influence", and a reciprocal relation with environment is arguably as important for understanding life as it is for understanding ecosystems. As Harold J. Morowitz (1992) explains it, life is a property of an ecological system rather than a single organism or species. He argues that an ecosystemic definition of life is preferable to a strictly biochemical or physical one. Robert Ulanowicz (2009) also highlights mutualism as the key to understand the systemic, order-generating behavior of life and ecosystems." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life#Definitions 2) Maybe you could also wish to know the answer to similar questions: - "What is life in your opinion?": http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/374573 - "What is life to you? why?": http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1639138 - "What is the meaning of life?": http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1

vida

life is a library and everyone is a book.

Its like walking into Unknown.