2.1 Characteristics of Life

Learning Objectives

• List and describe the characteristics of life.

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Introduction

Is fire alive?

Fire can grow. Fire needs fuel and oxygen. But fire is not a form of life, although it shares a few traits with some living things. How can you distinguish between nonliving and living things?

Guided Learning

The Characteristics of Life

How do you define a living thing? What do mushrooms, daisies, cats, and bacteria have in common? All of these are living things, or organisms. It might seem hard to think of similarities among such different organisms, but they actually have many properties in common. Living organisms are similar to each other because all organisms evolved from the same common ancestor that lived billions of years ago.

All living organisms:

1. Need energy to carry out life processes.
2. Are composed of one or more cells.
3. Respond to their environment.
4. Grow and reproduce.
5. Maintain a stable internal environment.

Living Things Need Resources and Energy

Why do you eat everyday? To get energy. Energy is the ability to do work. Without energy, you could not do any "work." Though not doing any "work" may sound nice, the "work" fueled by energy includes everyday activities, such as walking, writing, and thinking. But you are not the only one who needs energy. In order to grow and reproduce and carry out the other process of life, all living organisms need energy. But where does this energy come from?

The source of energy differs for each type of living thing. In your body, the source of energy is the food you eat. Here is how animals, plants, and fungi obtain their energy:

• All animals must eat in order to obtain energy. Animals also eat to obtain building materials.
• Plants don’t eat. Instead, they use energy from the sun to make their "food" through the process of photosynthesis.
• Mushrooms and other fungi obtain energy from other organisms. That’s why you often see fungi growing on a fallen tree; the rotting tree is their source of energy (Figure below).

Since plants harvest energy from the sun and other organisms get their energy from plants, nearly all the energy of living things initially comes from the sun.

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Bracket fungi and lichens on a rotting log in Cranberry Glades Park near Marlinton, West Virginia. Fungi obtain energy from breaking down dead organisms, such as this rotting log.

Living Things Are Made of Cells

If you zoom in very close on a leaf of a plant, or on the skin on your hand, or a drop of blood, you will find cells (Figure below). Cells are the smallest structural and functional unit of living organisms. Most cells are so small that they are usually visible only through a microscope. Some organisms, like bacteria, plankton that live in the ocean, or the Paramecium shown in Figure below are made of just one cell. Other organisms have millions, billions, or trillions of cells.

All cells share at least some structures. The nucleus is clearly visible in the blood cells (Figure below). The nucleus can be described as the "information center," containing the instructions (DNA) for making all the proteins in a cell, as well as how much of each protein to make. The nucleus is also the main distinguishing feature between the two general categories of cell. Although the cells of different organisms are built differently, they all have certain general functions. Every cell must get energy from food, be able to grow and divide, and respond to its environment. More about cell structure and function will be discussed in additional concepts.

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Reptilian blood cell showing the characteristic nucleus. A few smaller white blood cells are visible. This image has been magnified 1,000 times its real size.

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This Paramecium is a single-celled organism.

Living Organisms Respond to their Environment

All living organisms are able to react to something important or interesting in their external environment. For example, living organisms constantly respond to their environment. They respond to changes in light, heat, sound, and chemical and mechanical contact. Organisms have means for receiving information, such as eyes, ears, taste buds, or other structures.

Living Things Grow and Reproduce

All living things reproduce to make the next generation. Organisms that do not reproduce will go extinct. As a result, there are no species that do not reproduce (Figure below). Some organisms reproduce asexually (asexual reproduction), especially single-celled organisms, and make identical copies of themselves. Other organisms reproduce sexually (sexual reproduction), combining genetic information from two parents to make genetically unique offspring.

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Like all living things, cats reproduce to make a new generation of cats.

Living Things Maintain Stable Internal Conditions

When you are cold, what does your body do to keep warm? You shiver to warm up your body. When you are too warm, you sweat to release heat. When any living organism gets thrown off balance, its body or cells help it return to normal. In other words, living organisms have the ability to keep a stable internal environment. Maintaining a balance inside the body or cells of organisms is known as homeostasis. Like us, many animals have evolved behaviors that control their internal temperature. A lizard may stretch out on a sunny rock to increase its internal temperature, and a bird may fluff its feathers to stay warm (Figure below).

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A bird fluffs its feathers to stay warm and to maintain homeostasis. 

Review

• Living things are called organisms.
• All living organisms need energy to carry out life processes, are composed of one or more cells, respond to their environment, grow, reproduce, and maintain a stable internal environment.

Vocabulary

asexual reproduction

Process of forming a new individual from a single.

cell

Basic unit of structure and function of a living organism; the basic unit of life.

deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Nucleic acid that is the genetic material of all organisms.

energy

Ability to do work.

homeostasis

Ability to keep a stable internal environment; ability of the body to maintain a stable internal environment despite a changing environment.

nucleus

Membrane enclosed organelle in eukaryotic cells that contains the DNA; primary distinguishing feature between a eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell; and the information center, containing instructions for making all the proteins in a cell, as well as how much of each one to make.

organism

Living thing.

photosynthesis

Process by which specific organisms (including all plants) use the sun's energy to make their own food from carbon dioxide and water, and that converts the energy of the sun, or solar energy, into carbohydrates, a type of chemical energy.

protein

Organic compound composed of amino acids and includes enzymes, antibodies, and muscle fibers.

reproduce

The process of forming a new individual.

sexual reproduction

The process of forming a new individual from two parents.