What is life?

Can an alive be created from dead or nonliving things?

Can living things be created from dead and nonliving things?

Can living things be created from dead and nonliving things?

What distinguishes alive from dead or nonliving things?

What is the origin of life?

What is life? What is the origin of life? The word "life" is a word of fundamental importance to all of us, and it has probably been around ever since humankind began. Life is a term used to summarize the activities (growth, reproduction and metabolism) characteristic of all organisms—ranging from primitive forms to plants and animals. Cells are accepted as the smallest structures capable of basic life processes, such as taking in nutrients, expelling waste, and reproducing. All living organisms and almost all other components of plants and animals are made up cells. The average human body contains over 75 trillion cells, but many life forms exist as single cells that perform all the funcctions necessary for independent existence. A bacterium, though, is alive. Although it is a single cell, it can generate energy and the molecules needed to sustain itself, and it can reproduce. However, viruses are simpler but are not really “alive” in the sense that they cannot reproduce or grow without using the mechanisms in a living cell to do so.  That is, they depend on the host cell for the raw materials and energy necessary for nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, processing and transport, and all other biochemical activities that allow the virus to multiply and spread.

To day, biologists have learned a great deal about the cell and its parts; what it is made of, how it funcctions, how it grows, and how it reproduces. The lingering question that is still being actively investigated is how cells evolved, i.e., how living cells originated from nonliving chemicals.

From atoms to living organisms. All living organisms, from microbes to mammals, are composed of chemical substances from both the inorganic and organic world. That is, all living organisms are comprised of the same chemical elements that make up nonliving things.

Atoms make up molecules,

Molecules form organelles,

Organelles form cells,

Cells form tissues and organs,

And organ systems combine to form the living organisms.

Molecule is a group of atoms that are bound tightly together by strong chemical bonds called covalent bonds. When two or more atoms combine, they form a molecule, nonliving structure. For example, two atoms of the element hydrogen (abbreviated H) combine with one atom of the element oxygen (O) to form a molecule of water (H₂0). Small molecules serve as building blocks for larger molecules. Proteins, nucleic acids, carbonhydrates, and lipids, which include fats and oils, are the four major molecules that underlie cell structure and also participate in cell funcctions. For example, a tightly organized arrangement of lipids, proteins, and protein-sugar compounds forms the plasma membrane, or outer boundary, of certain cells. The organelles, membrane-bound compartments in cells, are built largely from proteins. Biochemical reactions in cells are guided by enzymes, specialized proteins that speed up chemical reactions. The nucleic acid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains the hereditary information for cells, and another nucleic acid, ribonucleic acid (RNA), works with DNA to build the thousands of proteins the cell needs.

Many substances on Earth are made of molecules. Millions of molecules join together to make up the cells in humans or in any other plant or animal. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, and the wood, paint, and carpeting that we use in homes are all made of molecules. The nature of each molecule depends on the atoms that it contains and how they link to each other. For example, the oxygen that animals require is made of molecules that have two oxygen atoms bound together. If one oxygen atom binds to a carbon atom, the molecule is instead the poisonous gas carbon monoxide.

Molecules form organelles as endoplasmic reticum, ribosome, golgi apparatus, lysososme, mitochondria, and organelles form cells. Cells are the smallest structures capable of basic life processes, such as taking in nutrients, expelling waste, and reproducing. All living things are composed of cells. Some microscopic organisms, such as bacteria and protozoa, are unicellular, meaning they consist of a single cell. Plants, animals, and fungi are multicellular; that is, they are composed of a great many cells working in concert. But whether it makes up an entire bacterium or is just one of trillions in a human being, the cell is a marvel of design and efficiency. Cells carry out thousands of biochemical reactions each minute and reproduce new cells that perpetuate life.

Cells display a remarkable ability to join, communicate, and coordinate with other cells. The human body, for example, consists of an estimated 75 trillion cells. Dozens of different kinds of cells are organized into specialized groups called tissues such as tendon, bone, skin, mucosa. Different tissue types are assembled into organs such as stomach, heart, brain and liver, which are structures specialized to perform particular funcctions. Organs, in turn, are organized into systems such as the circulatory, digestive, or nervous systems. All together, these assembled organ systems form the human body or the other living organisms. Can an alive be created from dead or nonliving things?

Can living things be created from dead and nonliving things? Atoms and molecules are not alive, and organelles are also not alive, but a living cell is a collection of non-living atoms and molecules. (From atoms to living organisms) Similarly, viruses are not by themselves alive. The living of them depends on the host cells. What does it take to make a living cell alive? What is the origin of life?

…………..And Who brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living? And Who regulates the affairs? Then they will say: Allah. Say then: Will you not then guard (against evil)? (Quran, 10: 31)

Surely Allah causes the grain and the stone to germinate; He brings forth the living from the dead and He is the bringer forth of the dead from the living; that is Allah! how are you then turned away. (Quran, 6: 95)

He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and gives life to the earth after its death, and thus shall you be brought forth. (Quran, 30: 19)