Life  

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Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur of 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae.
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Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel
The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur of 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" --Kierkegaard


"Eroticism ... is assenting to life up to the point of death." [...] --Eroticism, Georges Bataille


"We live in the best possible world [...]" --Gottfried Leibniz


"According to Thomas Hobbes, humans in the state of nature are inherently in a "war of all against all," and life in that state is ultimately "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.""--Sholem Stein


"Life is a sexually transmitted disease"


"One must, in one's life, make a choice between boredom and suffering"--Germaine de Staël

The Bristlecone Pine can reach an age far greater than that of any other single living organism known, up to nearly 5,000 years.
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The Bristlecone Pine can reach an age far greater than that of any other single living organism known, up to nearly 5,000 years.
The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing (c. 1887) by Odilon Redon, a dictum from the Pensées (1669) by Blaise Pascal
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The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing (c. 1887) by Odilon Redon, a dictum from the Pensées (1669) by Blaise Pascal

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Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate. Biology is the science concerned with the study of life.

Any contiguous living system is called an organism. Organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means. A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the biosphere of Earth, and the properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information.

Scientific evidence suggests that life began on Earth approximately 3.5 billion years ago. The mechanism by which life emerged is unknown although many hypotheses have been formulated. Since then, life has evolved into a wide variety of forms, which biologists have classified into a hierarchy of taxa. Life can survive and thrive in a wide range of conditions. The meaning of life—its significance, origin, purpose, and ultimate fate—is a central concept and question in philosophy and religion. Both philosophy and religion have offered interpretations as to how life relates to existence and consciousness, and on related issues such as life stance, purpose, conception of a god or gods, a soul or an afterlife. Different cultures throughout history have had widely varying approaches to these issues.

Though the existence of life is only confirmed on Earth, many scientists believe extraterrestrial life is not only plausible, but probable. Other planets and moons in the Solar System have been examined for evidence of having once supported simple life, and projects such as SETI have attempted to detect transmissions from possible alien civilizations. According to the panspermia hypothesis, life on Earth may have originated from meteorites that spread organic molecules or simple life that first evolved elsewhere.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Life" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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