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The term autopoiesis (from Greek αὐτo-(auto) 'self' and ποίησις 'creation, production'), one of several current theories of life, refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts. [1] The term was introduced in the 1972 publication Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living by ...
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction.
Also called an antibacterial. A type of antimicrobial drug used in the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections. Archaea One of the three recognized domains of organisms, the other two being Bacteria and Eukaryota. artificial selection Also called selective breeding. The process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively control the development of particular ...
Biological processes are made of many chemical reactions or other events that are involved in the persistence and transformation of life forms. [1] Regulation of biological processes occurs when any process is modulated in its frequency, rate or extent.
Once dissolved in water, these solutes are more likely to come in contact with one another and therefore take part in chemical reactions that sustain life. [33] In terms of its molecular structure, water is a small polar molecule with a bent shape formed by the polar covalent bonds of two hydrogen (H) atoms to one oxygen (O) atom (H 2 O). [33]
He defined a system component as "a unit of organization; a part with a function, i.e., a definite relation between part and whole." He identified the "nonfractionability of components in an organism" as the fundamental difference between living systems and "biological machines." He summarised his views in his book Life Itself. [19]
The mechanism, now ubiquitous in living cells, powers energy conversion in micro-organisms and in the mitochondria of eukaryotes, making it a likely candidate for early life. [ 172 ] [ 173 ] Mitochondria produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of the cell used to drive cellular processes such as chemical syntheses.
Asexual reproduction is a process by which organisms create genetically similar or identical copies of themselves without the contribution of genetic material from another organism. Bacteria divide asexually via binary fission ; viruses take control of host cells to produce more viruses; Hydras ( invertebrates of the order Hydroidea ) and ...