Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Learning from life on Earth in the present day
- 2 Essentials of fungal cell biology
- 3 First, make a habitat
- 4 The building blocks of life
- 5 An extraterrestrial origin of life?
- 6 Endogenous synthesis of prebiotic organic compounds on the young Earth
- 7 Cooking the recipe for life
- 8 ‘It’s life, Jim . . .’
- 9 Coming alive: what happened and where?
- 10 My name is LUCA
- 11 Towards eukaryotes
- 12 Rise of the fungi
- 13 Emergence of diversity
- References
- Index
8 - ‘It’s life, Jim . . .’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Learning from life on Earth in the present day
- 2 Essentials of fungal cell biology
- 3 First, make a habitat
- 4 The building blocks of life
- 5 An extraterrestrial origin of life?
- 6 Endogenous synthesis of prebiotic organic compounds on the young Earth
- 7 Cooking the recipe for life
- 8 ‘It’s life, Jim . . .’
- 9 Coming alive: what happened and where?
- 10 My name is LUCA
- 11 Towards eukaryotes
- 12 Rise of the fungi
- 13 Emergence of diversity
- References
- Index
Summary
The definition of life is an old philosophical problem, which has been made even more complex by the advent of the current understanding of nucleic acids and the impact of this on genetics, and the ascendancy of molecular biology. (For careful, detailed and entertaining discussions of the topic ‘what is life’ I would recommend the following references: Benner, 2010; Davies, 2006; Dyson, 1999; Fenchel, 2002; Gánti, 2003; Hazen, 2005; Koshland, 2002; Luisi, 2006; Lurquin, 2003.) But the most significant quotation, and the most important to place right at the start of this chapter is this:
What is the definition of life? I remember a conference of the scientific elite that sought to answer that question. Is an enzyme alive? Is a virus alive? Is a cell alive? After many hours of launching promising balloons that defined life in a sentence, followed by equally conclusive punctures of these balloons, a solution seemed at hand: ‘The ability to reproduce – that is the essential characteristic of life,’ said one statesman of science. Everyone nodded in agreement that the essential of a life was the ability to reproduce, until one small voice was heard. ‘Then one rabbit is dead. Two rabbits – a male and female – are alive but either one alone is dead.’ At that point, we all became convinced that although everyone knows what life is there is no simple definition of life . . .
(Koshland, 2002)I put high significance on this particular quotation for the phrases ‘everyone knows what life is’ and ‘there is no simple definition of life’; these are warnings of the nature of the road ahead if you choose to venture down this path. It is also evident that most authors are concerned to present (and bring to prominence) their own uncompromising opinion: Hazen (2005) writes:
It’s amazing how the ‘What is life?’ question sparks arguments and fosters hard-line positions. Scientists excel at many things, but compromise is not always one of them . . .
(Hazen, 2005, chapter 2, p. 27)Information
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- Fungal Biology in the Origin and Emergence of Life , pp. 95 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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