A LIFE, -and, well.
1. A special form of motion of matter that occurs at a certain stage of its development. Origin of life on earth. □ The basis of life is protein --- compounds that coagulate at high temperatures. V. Komarov, The origin of plants. I was very glad when I found out that it [the moon] does not shine with its own light, that it is dead and there is not and cannot be life on it. M. Gorky, My Universities.
2. The physiological state of a person, animal, plant from birth to death. [Vladimir:] Let's go, let's go quickly - we must catch her in her lifetime! Lermontov, Strange man. The most precious thing for a person is life. It is given to him once, and it is necessary to live it in such a way that it is not excruciatingly painful for the aimlessly lived years. N. Ostrovsky, How steel was tempered. Life slowly returned to Ivan Ilyich Telegin. A. N. Tolstoy, Gloomy morning. || Physiol. Administration by the body of functions associated with its emergence, development and destruction. Life of unicellular organisms. □ Neither in the life of an animal, nor in the life of a plant, could we find a single trait exclusively characteristic of one or the other. Timiryazev, Plant life.
3. The fullness of the manifestation of physical and spiritual forces. In the wilderness, in the darkness of confinement My days dragged on quietly Without a deity, without inspiration, Without tears, without life, without love. Pushkin, I remember a wonderful moment. There was so much movement and life in his whole figure that I could only see the treacherous old age when I came closer. Chekhov, Privy Councillor.
4. The period of someone's existence. To live life is not a field to cross. Proverb. Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods, What will come true in my life? Pushkin, Song about the prophetic Oleg. The life of a man is not enough to know for one and a hundredth part of what is being done in our land. Gogol, Dead Souls (Foreword). - It has long been known that work in mines shortens the life of a worker by about a full quarter. Kuprin, Moloch. || which or where. The period in the existence of someone, limited by the framework of being somewhere. Prince Andrei began to recall his Petersburg life during these four months, as if something 485 new. L. Tolstoy, War and Peace. || usually with a definition. The totality of everything experienced and done by man. She talked about her past life, about famous provincial directors. Paustovsky, Mikhailovsky groves.
5. An image of someone's existence. The life of the inhabitants of Pokrovsky was monotonous. Pushkin, Dubrovsky. His life goes like this. He usually gets up in the morning at eight o'clock, dresses and drinks tea. Then he sits down in his office to read. Chekhov, Chamber No. 6. Among the disasters and fears of war, Sashok lived an exciting, extraordinary life. Ketlinskaya, Under siege. || usually with a definition. The established order in the daily existence of someone, something; life. Now I'm back in Odessa and still can't get used to the European way of life. Pushkin, Letter to L. S. Pushkin, 25 Aug. 1823. Here, I thought, I am sitting on a deaf and rainy winter night in a dilapidated house, hundreds of miles away from city life, from society. Kuprin, Olesya.
6. someone something or which. The activity of society and a person in one or another of its manifestations, in various areas, spheres. economic life of the country. □ Gogol, Belinsky, Dobrolyubov - here is a complete account of our entire mental life in three names for a whole thirty years. Pisarev, Realists. The artist is the builder of the spiritual life of mankind. A. N. Tolstoy, On the freedom of creativity.
7. The reality around us; being. In the life that surrounded me at that time, there were many interesting things. M. Gorky, In people. We must first remake life, remake - you can sing. Mayakovsky, Sergei Yesenin. [Sergei:] Allow me to propose another toast: to science! --- for a science that is not divorced from life, from practice. V. Kozhevnikov, Fiery River.
8. Animation, excitement caused by the activity of living beings. Raisky walked around the garden. Life has already begun there; birds sang together, fussed in all directions, looking for breakfast; bees and bumblebees buzzed around the flowers. I. Goncharov, Cliff. With the lights, life also awakened: the horns of cars were heard on the river, a tractor crackled near the shore. Azhaev Far from Moscow. I've always loved vibrant bazaars. Sokolov-Mikitov, Green land.
bestow life cm. grant . give life to whom- give birth, give birth. end life cm. cum. looming life cm. looming. Moo life cm. moo. Give ( or put) life for someone- to sacrifice one's life, to die defending someone, smth. Live fast- lead a disorderly lifestyle that is detrimental to health, indulging in pleasures, entertainment, etc. take life and ( simple.) solve life- kill. Lose your life and ( simple.) dare life- die, perish. enter life cm. to come in . Bring to life what cm. conduct . Pass into life cm. pass the . Delete from your life cm. cross it out . Get out of life cm. leave . Bring back to life cm. return . End your life cm. finish . My life- an appeal to smb., the dearest, being for sb. source of happiness, joy, life itself. Girlfriend of life (joke.) is a wife. A matter of life or death cm. . light of life whose cm. light 1 .
Source (printed version): Dictionary of the Russian language: In 4 volumes / RAS, Institute of Linguistics. research; Ed. A. P. Evgenieva. - 4th ed., erased. - M.: Rus. lang.; Polygraphic resources, 1999; (electronic version):
What is life?
What is life And what is the meaning of human life? Is man created only to live a short life and die, and what features of our body testify that man was created for eternal life?
A life
Definition. A form of existence characteristic of plants, animals, humans, and spiritual beings. Living physical objects are different from
inanimate metabolism, as well as the ability to grow, multiply and respond to external stimuli.
Animals and people, unlikenon-conscious plants are souls. They have a vital force which keeps them alive and which itselfsupported by breathing.
For intelligent creatures, life in the full sense of the word is a perfect life with a full right to it. The human soul is not immortal. However, there is hope for God's faithful servants that they will attain perfection and be able to live forever: many on earth, and the "little flock" in heaven as heirs of God's kingdom.
Those who are resurrected to spiritual life and become rulers in the kingdom of heaven receive immortality, or life that does not need to be supported by something from the outside.
What is the meaning of human life?
For life to have meaning, it is important to recognize that there is One who is the Source of life. If life arose by chance, without the intervention of the mind, then our existence would be aimless, and the future would be uncertain.
But Acts 17:24, 25, 28 says, “God, who made the world and all that is in it … himself gives to all life, and breath, and everything. ... We live by it, and move, and exist.
And at Revelation 4:11, we are told these words to God: “Worthy are you, Jehovah our God, to receive glory, honor, and power, because you created all
everything exists and was created by your will.”
If people do not live according to the laws of God and do not follow his guidance, then this leads to disappointment. Galatians 6:7, 8 contains these thought-provoking words: “Make no mistake: God is not one to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap; he who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh.” (See Galatians 5:19-2)
Because of the sin inherited from Adam, people today cannot enjoy life to the fullest. However, this position is not consistent
the original intention of God. Adam's sin was followed by God's punishment, which, according to Romans 8:20, "creation [mankind] was subjected to futility."
Reflecting on his sinful state, the apostle Paul wrote: “I am of the flesh, sold under sin. The good that I want, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want, I do again and again. According to the inner man, I take pleasure in the law of God, but I see another law in my members, opposing the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. I'm an unfortunate person!" (Rom. 7:14, 19, 22-24).
If we apply biblical principles and put the will of God first in our lives, then our lives become as happy as they can be today and filled with deep meaning. God gains nothing from our serving him, he teaches us for our own benefit (Isaiah 48:17).
The Bible calls: "Be strong, immovable, always laboring hard in the Lord's work, knowing that your labor is not in vain before the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).
If we believe in what Jehovah has done for our salvation and walk in God's ways, then, according to the Bible, we have the opportunity to live
forever perfect. This hope has a solid foundation; those who are confident in it will never be disappointed. If we live in harmony with this hope, our life is already filled with real meaning (John 3:16; Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 2:6).
Was man created only to live a short life and die?
Gen. 2:15-17: “Jehovah God took the man [Adam] and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it. And Jehovah God commanded the man: “You can eat your fill from all the trees in the garden. But do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it you will certainly die.”
(God spoke of death not as an inevitability but as a consequence of sin, and urged Adam to beware of doing wrong. Compare Romans 6:23.)
Gen. 2:8, 9: “Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man whom he had formed. And Jehovah God made every tree out of the ground,
pleasing to the eye and good for food, and also the tree of life in the midst of the garden.” (After Adam sinned, he and his wife were expelled from Eden.
According to Genesis 3:22, 23, this was to prevent them from eating the fruit of the tree of life. From this we can conclude that if Adam had been obedient to his Creator, God would later have allowed him to eat the fruit from the tree of life, thereby recognizing him worthy of living forever. The very presence of the tree of life in Eden pointed to this possibility.)
Ps. 37:29: "The righteous shall inherit the earth and live on it forever."
This promise clearly shows that God's purpose for the earth and
humanity has not changed.
As far as we are concerned, is our life supposed to be just a fleeting existence full of suffering?
Rome. 5:12: "Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because they all sinned."
(We all die because of Adam's sin, not because it is God's will.)
Job 14:1: “A man who is born of a woman is short of days and full of worries.” (These words are appropriate to describe life in this imperfect
world.)
Despite all this, we can live a fulfilling, meaningful life.
Is life on earth meant only to determine who is worthy to go to heaven?
Do we have an immortal soul that continues to live after the death of the body?
What is necessary for us to have hope for something more than our present short life?
Matt. 20:28: “The Son of Man [Jesus Christ] did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”
John. 3:16: “God loves the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who exercises faith in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Heb. 5:9: "He [Jesus Christ] became responsible for eternal salvation for all who obey him." (See also John 3:36.)
How will the hope for the future life be realized?
Acts. 24:15: "I have hope in God, which they themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, the righteous and the unrighteous."
Those who faithfully served God in the past will be resurrected, as well as many who did not have enough knowledge about the true God and who therefore could not accept or reject his ways.
John. 11:25, 26: “Jesus said to her [the sister of the man he later resurrected], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Who shows faith in me, even if
will die, will live, and everyone who lives and shows faith in me will never die.
Do you believe this? Jesus spoke not only about the hope of the resurrection. He also spoke of the hope provided for those who will live when this wicked world is ended. Those who become earthly subjects of God's Kingdom will survive the end of this world and never taste death.
What features of our body indicate that a person was created for eternal life?
It is generally accepted that in a lifetime - 70 or even 100 years - a person uses only a small part of the capabilities of his brain. The Encyclopædia Britannica noted that the brain "has such a great potential that it cannot be realized throughout a person's life" (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1976, vol. 12, p. 998).
According to astrophysicist Carl Sagan, our brain can store information that would take up "twenty million volumes - about as much is contained in the world's largest libraries" (Sagan K. Kosmos. SPb., 2005. P. 407).
Biochemist Isaac Asimov wrote that the human brain "is capable of withstanding any load of learning and memory processes to which it is subjected, and could handle even a billion times more" (The New York Times Magazine. 1966. 9 Oct. p. 146).
Why does the human brain need such a potential if we do not have the opportunity to realize it? Isn't it logical to conclude that humans, with their ability to endlessly learn new things, were created for eternal life?
Is there life on other planets?
The journal Science and Life wrote: “The general rise of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, which reigned in the minds of people in the 60s and 70s, was also reflected in
science plans.
Radio telescopes were aimed at picking up meaningful signals from space. […] But the terrestrial radio telescopes did not catch any reasonable signals.
The thoughts of scientists on this topic took the form of articles preaching the uniqueness of life on Earth, asserting that people are alone in this boundless world of stars ... ”(1999. No. 2. P. 10).
The Encyclopedia Americana says: “[Outside of our solar system] no other planets have yet been discovered. But if outside
There is a solar system of the planet, then there is a possibility that life was born on one of them and a developed civilization appeared ”(The Encyclopedia Americana. 1977. Vol. 22. P. 176).
Since then, many other planets have been discovered outside our solar system, but there is no evidence that any of
they have life.
Why do people spend huge amounts of money searching for life in the universe? Are they not trying in this way, as can be seen from the above quote, to find confirmation of the theory of evolution - confirmation that man was not created by God, and therefore does not bear any responsibility before Him?
Life is the most wonderful gift
(What is the main difference between living and inert nature?)
Lvov Joseph Georgievich
The article proposes a fundamentally new (and at the same time completely simple, naturally arising from fundamental physical laws) answer to the eternal human question about the essence of the phenomenon of life.
If the direct goal of any scientific work is to reveal the secrets of nature, then it also has another, no less valuable effect on the mind of the researcher. It makes him the owner of methods, and nothing but scientific work could lead him to develop them; this puts him in a position from which many areas of nature, besides those he has studied, appear before him in a new light.
J.K.Maxwell
1. Status of the issue
The more complex the abundance of new facts, the more colorful the variety of new ideas, the more imperative the call for a unifying worldview sounds.
G. Helmholtz
The question "What is life?" has always been one of the most fundamental mysteries of the universe, which has long troubled mankind. At all times, people have tried to give a more or less adequate answer to it, corresponding to the current level of development of their views on nature. But even today, at the turn of the second and third millennia of our era, a single, universally recognized opinion on this burning problem, oddly enough, still does not exist. Numerous assumptions are made, of course, that appeal to one or another secondary sign of life, and, of course, certain arguments are given in their favor. However, it is precisely the noted secondary nature of the features discussed in this case that makes their very number as a whole so large that specialists are forced to engage in ongoing disputes about the priority of any specific of them. And, unfortunately, there is no end to this state of affairs, because no one has yet proposed a truly fundamental definition of life, from the standpoint of which it would be possible to explain all the indicated relatively particular manifestations of it. Meanwhile, it seems to us that it is not difficult to understand the essence of life. It is only necessary to look at the named problem from the most general point of view, affecting the most fundamental aspects of the universe. This article is devoted to an attempt to show this in practice.
First, however, it is required at least briefly to state the existing points of view. Due to the fact that we do not have the opportunity here to cover the entire discussion described above, we will limit ourselves to quoting as fully as possible the corresponding article from the "Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary", where the specified fundamental concept of "life" is defined in an effort to take into account all existing points of view as follows forcedly verbose: "Life is a form of existence of matter, naturally arising under certain conditions in the process of its development. Living objects differ from non-living ones in metabolism (an indispensable condition for life), irritability, the ability to reproduce, grow, actively regulate their composition and functions, to various forms of movement, adaptability to the environment, etc. ... Darwin in The Origin of Species defined the basic laws underlying the emergence of all forms of life as follows: "These laws, in the broadest sense - Growth and reproduction, Heredity, almost necessarily resulting from reproduction, variability dependent on direct and whether the indirect action of living conditions and from exercise and non-exercise. A breeding progression so high that it leads to the Struggle for Life and its consequence - Natural Selection...".
On the whole, - a summarizing conclusion is then made in the dictionary - Darwin's generalization remains valid to this day, and his basic laws of life are reduced to two, even more general ones. This is, first of all, the ability of the living to assimilate substances received from outside, that is, to rebuild them, likening them to their own material structures, and due to this, repeatedly reproduce them (reproduce). The ability for excessive self-reproduction underlies cell growth, reproduction of cells and organisms and, consequently, the progression of reproduction (the main condition for natural selection), as well as the basis of heredity and hereditary variability. Reproduction of one's own kind - a fundamental property of the living - is now being interpreted in terms of chemical concepts. Another feature of the living is the huge variety of properties acquired by the material structures of living objects. ...The implementation of diverse information about the properties of the organism is carried out by synthesis according to the genetic code of various proteins, which, due to their diversity and structural plasticity, determine the development of various physical and chemical adaptations of living organisms. On this foundation, in the process of EVOLUTION, CONTROL SYSTEMS, unsurpassed in their perfection, arose.
Thus, - the final result is summed up further - life is characterized by HIGHLY ORDERED material structures, which make up a living system capable of self-reproduction as a whole. Life is qualitatively superior to other forms of existence of matter in relation to the diversity and complexity of chemical components and the dynamics of transformations occurring in living things. Living systems are characterized by a much higher level of ORDER: structural and functional, in space and time. The structural compactness and energy efficiency of living things are the result of the highest orderliness at the molecular level. Living organisms exchange ENERGY, SUBSTANCE and INFORMATION with the environment, i.e. they are OPEN SYSTEMS. At the same time, unlike non-living systems, living systems have the ability to ORDER, to create ORDER from CHAOS (that is, COUNTERACTION TO THE GROWTH OF ENTROPY). However, the decrease in entropy in living systems is possible ONLY DUE TO INCREASING ENTROPY IN THE ENVIRONMENT, so IN GENERAL THE PROCESS OF INCREASING ENTROPY CONTINUES.
So, as we see, today, as we warned, many of its most diverse features are cited as defining features of life, among which several so-called main ones seem to stand out. But, as it is easy to see, they are also far from self-sufficient and therefore require, in addition to their basic formulation, numerous special explanations, which directly indicates, let us emphasize this point again and again, the purely secondary nature of these features, which are in fact only necessary particulars. consequences of some initial, truly fundamental feature of the living, which, unfortunately, has not yet been fully understood. In other words, a single criterion of life that is simple and easily explicable from the standpoint of ordinary human logic is, as already mentioned, essentially absent at all. But at the same time, as can be seen even from the quotation just cited, any sufficiently rigorous conversation about the essence of living things will inevitably come down to universal physical concepts, and this fact, we now emphasize this circumstance especially, is not at all accidental. On the contrary, it is absolutely natural, which can be easily shown just by the general logical reasoning mentioned above.
After all, what is the very definition of this or that concept? Yes, just in establishing how exactly it differs from what is directly opposite to itself in its basic logical meaning. That is, in fact, two concepts are always defined at once, which are antipodes for each other. This means that the definition of life proper should, in the general case, consist in establishing the directly noted main difference between it and inertness, which exactly corresponds to the directly opposite concept of "not life", i.e., life and inertness must be defined simultaneously. But in order to solve this basic task, it is absolutely necessary, understandably, in principle, to have a general view of all nature as a whole, embracing both life and inertia in the same way, which is the only one that is given by the aforementioned physics that studies the most general laws of the universe (if you like, natural philosophy). Purely biological analysis, as it should be clear to everyone by now, is simply not capable of helping to comprehend the original essence of life, since it is too narrow to achieve such a fundamental goal, which is why it usually ends when discussing the noted global issue with a transition early or late necessarily to physical concepts. And ultimately, as it is easy to see from the same article of the "Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary" cited above, - to one, the most general of them - entropy! Which is not surprising: the difference between life and non-life, which, as everyone understands, is among the most fundamental in nature, must necessarily be fundamentally connected with the most universal physical law, which is the so-called second law of thermodynamics, personified by this basic concept.
This fact is well understood, of course, by the physicists themselves, many of whom have devoted their works to the study of the most interesting problem under consideration. Including the most famous of them, such as, say, one of the main creators of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger, who published in the 1940s a small but extremely famous book with a very revealing general title: "What is life "From the point of view of physics." In it, he directly linked the main direction of the search for an answer to this extremely worrying question with the study of the consequences of the indicated cornerstone second law of thermodynamics, which he characterizes as "the most important, most general and all-encompassing law" of nature. But, unfortunately, Schrödinger was not able to give on this basis the very desired definition of life, which also has its own quite understandable logical explanation: in order to solve this key problem, as we will see, in addition to the general physical one, some other purely specific ones are also needed for the first time. view approaches to the special problems considered in this case, developed so far mainly already in special branches of science.
Every person in this life has a chance to embody himself, to show the world that you are worthy of respect and love, recognition and understanding. But this is not given just like that, you need to fight for it and you need to prove it. In our age of competition, it is more and more difficult to prove and prove oneself, but this is necessary, because Life itself sets high standards and sometimes dictates very difficult ones.
How else? After all, we, too, would not like to accept life at half its strength, to accept life as a surrogate. Sometimes we want everything or nothing. This is normal for every young person. After all, a young young organism full of strength requires maximum return and, as a result, immediate merit and recognition of its merits. 'Cause it's so easy and obviously!
It seems to all of us that the world was created only for us, and there is nothing outside of us, which means that it does not make sense. But it's not. This is a subjective position of a person. Although for almost everyone personally, this is in many ways the main guideline. How to understand that no matter who you are, you are only a part of our large human world, everything that is concentrated and collected in you, thoughts and dreams, even pain and fear, and complexes, is only a product of certain social and social relations.
If in the recent past it was enough for our ancestors to have a few sheep and a yurt, now it is certainly a penthouse, own business, belonging to an elite group, and so on. All this, of course, is good to have, but if you don’t have it, then you can strive for it and work hard. Work tirelessly.
There has never been in the history of mankind so that labor does not bring real and tangible benefits. This applies not only to careers, but also studies, friendship, love, especially and literally everything that surrounds us. Today the richest man on the planet Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, once came to the US with only a few tens of dollars in his pocket. But, thanks to hard work, faith in himself, he achieved what is not given to many, achieved success and wealth, love and recognition!
What is personality? Ultimately, a real person is tireless work and will, undivided faith in yourself, in your principles and ideals, faith in those who walk with you. This is the only way today a young person can realize himself, achieve success, respect, love!
The new generation still has a harder time, the changes are happening so quickly that sometimes you don’t have time to get used to them and realize them. After all, our Time does not stand still and requires more and more strength and bestowal from you. It is called evolution. We want more, and the demands on us are also great. This is the Law. Whoever understands this will learn everything that follows. And knowledge will come to the rescue, because they are everywhere - who wants to hear, he will hear, who wants to see, he will see and gain. And he will gain knowledge for the benefit of himself and people. This is also common knowledge.
But the trouble is, if we don’t master something somewhere, we don’t have time to overtake, we are already trudging at the end columns, and we often hear offensive words addressed to us: losers, losers, brakes, sucks and many other offensive words, with which our language is very rich. For everyone personally, this is hard to endure, this is a test of his psyche, character, will and vitality.
Is suicide an option? What is the sense of life? Should I live?
It seems to you that the world only does what beats, humiliates, insults, hates and does not love you. Not everyone can stand it and someone begins to take it for granted that he is really a loser, an outcast, not loved and despised by everyone. And everything he does is useless, that there is no light in relationships, in love and friendship, at work and in school, and most importantly in life itself. And as a result, only one thing comes to mind - to end it all once and for all.
Is this the way out? You are only showing your unviability, your complete defeat. Committing suicide, you are committing a sin that is not accepted by any religions of the world, any philosophy, any social formations, whether it be wild Aboriginal tribes in Australia or advanced European civilization. And for relatives and friends, this will already be a real shock and a wound for life.
Is it for this father with mother raised you. Is that why God gave you life? Of course not. No matter how bitter your life is from your point of view, there is nothing more valuable than your life. After all, your life is a chance. A new chance to change everything around. To make the world and yourself in your own unique way.
Difficult - yes, hard - yes, but nothing is impossible. And the world only then changes before your eyes if you continue to cling to it, fight and hope. But hope works wonders if you are faithful to it to the end. Believe, hope, work! Here are three magic words that should be for you rule all life. And then life will open to you in all its fullness and versatility.
And you will see that you were endlessly, blindly mistaken when you wanted to commit suicide. After all, you can't end your life. life on its own beautiful, and it doesn't matter who you are in it, or master, love or not love. What matters is that you are a person, you are alive and you are looking for your own path, unique, unbeaten and Great in your own way.
After all, you are the only one in the world and not one of the seven billion people is absolutely like you. Not one ... So you have to live and bear the sometimes heavy burden of life to the bitter end. The only way Nature manifests itself, only in this way does the one who deserves life survive. And life in this knows no boundaries and definitions, life requires only one thing from you - life! Therefore, believe, hope and work! Blessing will come, recognition will come, love will come. So it has always been, so it will be ... After all, this is Life!
What is life? It is difficult to give an exact definition of life, but everyone can accurately distinguish between living and non-living. So to speak, for a living and for a dead horse they give a different price.
In fact, it is intuitively clear to us what is alive and what is dead, but as a rule we find it difficult to precisely formulate the difference. There are many attempts to give a definition, a definition of the concept of "life", but they all turn out to be imperfect. Therefore, an intelligent person generally refuses the definition, replacing it with a tautology. Living is living, that in which there is life, that is arranged as living.
For example, life is what we have in common with small bacteria, plants and giant whales. Life is a constant and unpredictable movement. Life is something that can be born and die….
All living organisms are made up of molecules. Moreover, each of the molecules is not alive in itself. So, a water molecule that is inside a muscle cell is the same as a water molecule in a glass of tea. But, having come together, molecules of various substances can form, for example, a muscle cell, which has the ability to contract and respond to environmental changes, in a word, to live.
We call a miracle what we cannot explain. Therefore, the seemingly imperceptible transition from inanimate molecules to a living organism is often called the miracle of life. On the other hand, perhaps we ourselves mystify what we see, but everything is much simpler ...
“Life is a mode of existence of protein bodies, the essential point of which is the constant exchange of substances with the external nature surrounding them, and with the cessation of this metabolism, life also ceases, which leads to the decomposition of the protein.” This definition was given by Friedrich Engels - and relatively recently it was very popular with us. Well, not such a bad definition. But is it enough?
Engels himself did not think so. For him, metabolism is only an essential, but not the only criterion of life. It can also be present in an inanimate object. Suppose we have two opaque boxes that have holes "at the entrance" and "at the exit". What's inside, we don't know. However, we can measure the condition of the air at the inlet and outlet. The measurements showed that in both cases we have an oxygen deficiency, an increased concentration of carbon dioxide and water vapor.
We measure the temperature and see that the air at the outlet is warmer than at the inlet. We may conclude that each box contains a system capable of exchanging substances with the environment. We open the boxes and what we see ... in one of them there is a live mouse, and in the other - a burning candle. The criterion of metabolism does not work here, it does not make it possible to distinguish the living from the non-living, to distinguish the process of combustion from the process of respiration.
If we cut off the air supply, the mouse dies. But even a dead organism can exchange substances with the environment. This, in particular, is the basis for the process of fossil formation: the remains of animals and plants in the rock layer give organic matter to the environment, and minerals take its place. Petrified trees are especially amazing: outwardly, they retain the structure of wood to the smallest detail, but millions of years ago it was replaced by silica and iron oxides.
What conclusion can be drawn here? Metabolism is a necessary condition if we are talking about a living state. However, metabolism alone is not enough to define life! Something else is needed.
Let's try again. First, life is characterized by activity. Life works. Even if it stays “in passive”, adapts to the conditions (that is, “suffers”: “suffering” in Aristotle is a category of subordination, a category opposite to action: actio - passio), the active component is still preserved, an independent act, as it were " out of myself and for myself." Such activity necessarily occurs with the expenditure of energy in the system: in order to live, forces are spent! Secondly, life is the maintenance and reproduction of always a specific order, a specific, specific structure. Exactly specific. That's what energy is spent and forces are spent on!
What is active playback? This is a process when the system itself reproduces itself and maintains its integrity, using elements of the environment with a lower order for this. A passive process of this kind is by no means a sign of life. A bird reproduces its nests every year, a beaver builds a dam, but neither a nest nor a dam can be considered living objects, unlike their builders. In general, it is unlikely that a bird can be obtained, reproduced by a nest, a beaver by a dam, and a Bigfoot by its trail ...
More on energy consumption. Why is this a necessary condition in the definition of life? Because it makes it possible to distinguish living beings from other self-reproducing structures, such as a crystal.
Back in the 18th century, analogies were drawn between the growth of organisms and the growth of crystals. In fact, each crystal has its own specific structure, which occurs spontaneously. Sodium chloride crystallizes in the form of a cube, carbon (diamond) - in the form of an octahedron. Accumulations, intergrowths of crystals sometimes surprisingly resemble the structures of living nature. Recall at least the frosty patterns on the window panes. They are sometimes so similar to the leaves of ferns and other outlandish plants that they seem more real than real ones. Even metals form structures of this kind. Metallurgists around the world are well aware of the so-called "Chernov tree". During the casting of a metal product, gaps and shells can form - this is how specialists call them. And sometimes iron crystals coalesce in such shells - this is very similar to a well-known plant.
And yet, the analogy between frosty patterns and fern leaves is invalid. Although these structures are outwardly similar, the processes of their formation are diametrically opposed energetically. A crystal is a system with a minimum of free energy. What does it mean? This means that during crystallization, energy is released in the form of heat. For example, when one kilogram of "frosty patterns" occurs, 619 kcal of heat should be released.
The same amount of energy must be expended to destroy this structure. Fern leaves, on the contrary, absorb the energy of the sun's rays during their emergence and growth. By destroying this structure, we can get the energy back. We, in fact, do this, for example, by burning coal, which was formed from the remains of giant ferns of the Paleozoic era, or simply warming ourselves by an ordinary fire. And the point here is not the leaf-like pattern itself, which outwardly combines the forest fern and the pattern on the glass.
A shapeless ice floe of the same mass will require the same amount of energy to melt and evaporate. And the formation of the external complexity of a plant leaf consumes energy, negligible compared to that which is conserved in organic matter.
But what about the outward resemblance? The point is this. Both fern leaves and frost patterns have a maximum surface area for a given volume. For a fern (and any other plant), this is necessary, because respiration and assimilation of carbon dioxide goes through the surface of the leaves. In cases where it is necessary to reduce the consumption of water for evaporation, plants, such as cacti, acquire a spherical shape with a minimum surface area. But this must be paid for by a decrease in the rate of CO2 assimilation and, as a result, by a slowdown in growth.
Water vapor, crystallizing on cold glass, also forms a structure with a maximum surface, because the rate of free energy loss is maximum in this case (crystals grow from the surface). So the analogies between crystals and living organisms have no essential meaning, so to speak. The liquid, which is splashed out of the vessel under weightless conditions, acquires the shape of a ball (minimum surface tension energy). But this can hardly mean that the laws of the cosmos are similar to the rules of the game with balls at the pool table!
In fairness, it should be noted that crystalline forms are not alien to life. Many people know large and absolutely harmless centipede mosquitoes with long brittle limbs. Their larvae live in moist soil, feeding on decaying plant debris. Among them there are individuals painted in blue with an iridescent tint. They appear lethargic, and they are actually ill—infected with the so-called rainbow virus. In the hemolymph of such larvae, under a microscope, one can find crystals of amazing beauty, shimmering like sapphires.
These crystals are composed of virus particles - virions. When the larvae die, they will enter the soil to be swallowed by the larvae of the next generation of mosquitoes. By the way, many viruses form such crystals, and not only insect viruses. But it is essential that this is precisely the inactive form of the existence of the virus, in contrast to the active, living one. In the form of a crystal, the virus does not multiply, but only experiences its "hard times" in this way. The famous physicist Erwin Schrödinger called the chromosome an "aperiodic crystal". In fact, the nuclear substance of the cell during the period of division is ordered, and formally it can be called a crystal. But when the nuclear substance (chromatin) is “packed” into a chromosome, it is, again, inactive, and the chromosome itself is only a way of transferring chromatin from cell to cell.
So, no external energy is needed for crystallization. But in order to maintain and reproduce its own order of life in the next generation, the body needs to absorb energy (in the form of light quanta or unoxidized organic compounds, simple substances, and release oxidized waste products, etc.). This is what metabolism is.
But why, what is this exchange for? “Everything flows,” said Heraclitus of Ephesus. If this is the case, then the living organism "flows" most of all. It is a stream along which energy and substances are constantly moving - elements for recreating structures. Throughout life, there is a continuous replacement of old cellular structures with newly formed ones. So, blood cells are completely replaced after 4 months. Ultimately, this is also repair work, but the body replaces not only cells that have received defects, but everything.
It is said that nerve cells do not regenerate. This means that the body does not generate new nerve cells, they do not multiply - there are as many as there were. Yes, absolutely new cells are not formed. But throughout life they are constantly rebuilt. It's like a deep overhaul and redevelopment of the house. The house is old but renovated and in excellent condition! We can only formally consider the neurons with which we end our life as the same cells with which we began it.
And one more expression: specific structure. What it is? From generation to generation, organisms reproduce the orderliness characteristic of the species to which they belong. This is done with almost perfect accuracy (the word "almost" is extremely important). Here the wolf ate the hare. Does he really need the organs of a hare, his tissues, his proteins and nucleic acids - all that is specific to the “hare” structure, “hare orderliness”? Of course no!
All this in the stomach of a wolf will turn into a mixture of low-molecular organic substances - amino acids, carbohydrates, nucleotides, etc., common to all wildlife, non-specific. Some of them the wolf's body will oxidize to carbon dioxide and water in order to (spending the received energy!) build its own, specifically ordered "wolf" structure from the remaining non-specific substances - its proteins, its cells and tissues. Feed a wolf a mixture of amino acids synthesized by a chemist and the same will happen.
Is this true of life as such, of life in general? The question is open. But on Earth, that's how it is. Terrestrial organisms do not need someone else's orderliness. They struggle with all their might, desperately. Everyone knows about the numerous medical attempts to transplant various organs or tissues into animals and humans: heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, etc. Can these attempts be called successful? The result was always similar: the transplanted organs had a strong tendency to rejection.
The only exceptions were organs that were "of the same order" with the patient, taken from an identical twin - and this is, after all, a "structural" copy of the same organism. As for tissues, doctors prefer to take them for transplantation from the same organism: for example, skin from the victim’s leg is transplanted to a burnt area. It is possible to save a foreign transplanted organ only by suppressing the protective immune systems of antibody production. But then the patient will be defenseless against any infection! This is a huge, deadly risk, and, one way or another, in the end it is only about the continuation of life, but not about the prolongation of a normal full life.
Even hormones, so to speak, are simply bioactive substances (that is, not only complex biological formations) are species-specific. Here, of course, there is a gap, there is a difference in degree. For example, insulin, the only effective remedy for diabetes, is relatively low species-specific, so this protein isolated from the pancreas of cattle can be used to treat diabetics. But the growth hormone - somatotropin - is species-specific. To treat dwarf growth in a person, it is human somatotropin that is secreted from the pituitary gland of a deceased person (yes, yes, there is no other way yet).
Someone will notice: there are complex organisms, their structural identity is complex, and, naturally, their structural specificity is quite demanding. But there are simple organisms, there are even simple ones. How then? It would seem that lower organisms should have less aversion to the "foreign order". In fact, organ transplants between individuals of different species are successful in fish and amphibians, and bovine somatotropin can stimulate the growth of trout. But all these are artificially created positions by the experimenter. So, not quite “normal”, unnatural course of life. After all, they say: if you beat a hare, he will learn how to light matches. The only question is, will this unfortunate hunted creature still be a hare? Let's put it this way: a hare that dies in a wolf's teeth is much more of a hare, more true, "correct" than a hare that can light matches!
Animals, feeding on other animals or plants, begin by destroying someone else's order. Food in their stomachs and intestines is broken down into simple chemical compounds, and by the structure, for example, of the amino acids glycine or phenylalanine, it is impossible to tell whether they are derived from the proteins of bovine meat, peas, or artificially synthesized by a smart chemist with glasses. From these elementary building blocks of life, organisms build only their inherent structures. Each organism is characterized by a unique combination of protein molecules inherent only to it. And already on this basis, a complex of all signs of the body appears - at the level of cells, tissues and organs.
In plants, this is even more pronounced. Water, a set of nutrient salts, carbon dioxide and light - with this set of identical factors, a rose grows from one seed, a nettle from another, and a Christmas tree from a third (and not a “Chernov tree” at all - remember?). Each time - a certain plant with its own set of properties. With its order.
So, the body takes from outside not orderliness, but energy. Due to this energy, he builds his own specific order “according to their kind” – this is what the Scripture seems to say, neglecting someone else's. From a chicken egg - a homogeneous mass of yolk and protein - a chicken appears with a head, legs, wings. And this simple thing, this miracle is called life.
S. Minakov
