Virus modelsFLICKR, RAZZA MATHADSA
The definition of life is as enormous a problem as the phenomenon of life itself. One could easily collect from the literature more than 100 different definitions, none satisfactory enough to be broadly accepted. What should the definition contain, to be suitable for all varieties of observable life? Humans, animals, plants, microorganisms. Do viruses also belong to life?
There are two tendencies in the attempts to define life. One is to formulate an all-inclusive definition, accommodating life's attributes and manifestations from all levels of complexity.1 Another tendency is to reduce the attributes to only those which are common to all forms of life.2 But we do not know what would be the “simplissimus” from which everything, probably, started. Darwin speculated 140 years ago,3 not knowing ...
