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Organisation: being structurally composed of one or more cells – the basic units of life. Metabolism: transformation of energy, used to convert chemicals into cellular components and to decompose organic matter . Living things require energy for homeostasis and other activities.
A life form (also spelled life-form or lifeform) is an entity that is living, [1] [2] such as plants , animals , and fungi . It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, [3] are extinct. [4] [5] Earth is the only celestial body known to harbor life forms. No form of ...
Among the criteria that have been proposed for being an organism are: autonomous reproduction, growth, and metabolism [7] noncompartmentability – structure cannot be divided without losing functionality. [6] Richard Dawkins stated this as "the quality of being sufficiently heterogeneous in form to be rendered non-functional if cut in half". [8]
Living systems are life forms (or, more colloquially known as living things) treated as a system. They are said to be open self-organizing and said to interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information , energy and matter .
Plato described the universe as a living being in his dialogue Timaeus (30b–d): . Thus, then, in accordance with the likely account, we must declare that this Cosmos has verily come into existence as a Living Creature endowed with soul and reason [...] a Living Creature, one and visible, containing within itself all the living creatures which are by nature akin to itself.
Jiva (Sanskrit: जीव, IAST: jīva), also referred as Jivātman, is a living being or any entity imbued with a life force in Hinduism and Jainism. [1] The word itself originates from the Sanskrit verb-root jīv, which translates as 'to breathe' or 'to live'.
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Various unicellular and multicellular species, including some vertebrates, achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. A biologically immortal living being can still die from means other than senescence, such as through injury, poison, disease, predation, lack of available resources, or changes to environment.