The living world short note (part 2)

When we try to define living we conventionally look for distinctive characteristics exhibited by living organism. Growth, reproduction,ability to sense environment and mount a suitable response come to our mind immediately as unique feature of living organism.

Reproduction- reproduction likewise is a characteristics of living organism.

In multicellular organism, reproduction referred  to the production of progeny possessing feature more or less similar to those of parents.

Yeast,hydra- budding.

Planaria- true regeneration

Fungi , the filamentous algae, protonema of mosses- fragmentation.

Metabolism-another characteristics of life is metabolism.There are thousands of metabolic reactions occuring simultaneously inside  all living organism, be they unicellular or multicellular.

All plants animals and microbes exhaled metabolism.

An isolated metabolic reaction outside the body of an organism, perform in a test tube is neither living nor non living.

Hence metabolic is a defining feature of all living organism without exception.

Cellular organisation-cellular organisation of the body is the defining feature of life form.

We sense our environment through our sense organ.

Plants respond to external factors like light w,temperature other organisms pollutants etc.

all organisms from the prokaryotes to the most complex eukaryotes can sense and respond to environmental cues.

All organism therefore are aware of their surrounding.

Human being is the only organism who is aware of himself, i.e, has  self-consciousness.

Consciousness-consciousness is the defining property of living organism- 

we observe patient laying in coma in hospitals supported by machines which replace heart and lung. The patient age otherwise brain is dead.

The patient has no self consciousness.

Are such patients who never come back to normal life, living or non living.