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Updated on 03rd June, 2023 , 11 min read
Any organism or living form that demonstrates a trait associated with life or being alive is referred to as a "living thing." Cells, which are tiny building blocks, make up all living things. They are capable of movement and have a metabolism. Living things have senses, eat, breathe, grow, and move. Even their young can be reproduced by them. They possess the senses of taste, smell, sight, and touch. All living things eventually pass away as they get older because their organs and senses stop working. Plants are an exception to this rule because they do not walk like humans or other living things do. Living things are the only organisms that exhibit movement.
An organism that needs food to grow, air to breathe, and water to survive is said to be a living being. A living thing has the ability to sense, move, and reproduce. There are both living things and non-living things on Earth. Trees, birds, and other living things are examples. For the trees to survive, they need to breathe air and have access to nutrients, water, and sunlight. The birds can fly, they eat to gain weight, and they develop their eggs into young by hatching them. They are able to see, smell, taste, hear, and feel.
The cells that make up living things are capable of performing a variety of cellular functions. Below are some of the characteristics that best define what a living thing is:
Typically, the mass and number of individual organisms increase to indicate growth. Humans continue to age visibly after a certain point, but as long as cells divide, new cells continue to replace the old ones in the body. Because of the buildup of particles, some inanimate objects, like mountains, also appear to expand in size. Cell division leads to the growth of living things. Therefore, growth is not a defining quality.
It is the process by which an organism creates a person who is similar to itself. Asexual and sexual reproduction are the two main types of reproduction. Like humans, the majority of mammals reproduce sexually. However, when thinking about unicellular organisms like bacteria, growth and reproduction are unclear because they both result from cell division. Therefore, reproduction once again cannot be regarded as a characteristic that best describes living.
It includes every chemical process taking place inside a living cell or body. As a result, it is a typical trait of living things. Non-living things do not show metabolism.
Cells are the basic building blocks of organisms. They also adhere to the organization of cells, tissues, and organs, which in turn combine to form the organ system. An organism is made up of various organ systems. This kind of cellular organization is absent in nonliving beings. Muscles, tissues, and nerve cells are a few examples.
It is a characteristic that determines how an organism responds to an outside stimulus or environmental change. It is a characteristic of all living things. They have the capacity to detect any environmental change.
Organisms considered to be living exhibit the traits of life. The following distinguishes living things from non-living things-
Animals and plants are the two broad categories into which living things are divided. They are both eukaryotic. They are differentiated according to their traits, mode of nutrition, reproductive process, etc. Plants are non-motile, photosynthetic, and have a cell wall, while animals are heterotrophic, motile, and lack a cell wall. Being prokaryotes, bacteria are neither plants nor animals. They are single-celled organisms, bacteria, and archaea. They lack a nucleus despite having cell walls made of various materials.
The kingdom is a living thing's initial level of classification. There are five kingdoms, and the animals are divided into each kingdom according to how they obtain food, what kind of cells they have, how many cells they have, etc.
The organism with the greatest physical similarity within a kingdom is placed under the phylum, which is the next level of classification for living things after the kingdom. The physical resemblances among the organisms in a phylum are based on their shared ancestry.
The phylum's organisms are further broken down into classes. The organisms in classes share more traits than a phylum as a whole. Given that they consume their mother's milk as infants, humans are considered to be mammals.
Orders are a further division of a class. Using taxonomy, the organisms are divided into orders. This taxonomy is a list of traits used to categorize organisms into different orders and identify which organisms belong to which order.
Orders are further divided into families. Families of organisms share more characteristics than organisms at any other level of classification. The organisms of a family are related to each other. The Hominidae family includes humans.
Based on the organism's generic name, the genus is a classification of the organism. Between animals and plants, there are many different genera. The first part of the organism's two-part name is completed by the genus.
At this species level, classification is done in the most precise manner. The ability to reproduce with another organism of the same species is the basis for classifying an organism as a species. The species of an organism determines the second part of its two-part name.
The properties of the Five Kingdoms are-
The table below provides a comparison of the differences between living things and non-living things-
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Living Things |
Non- Living Things |
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Living things are anything with a soul. |
non-living things devoid of life. |
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Cells are the smallest unit of life. |
Cells are not present in non-living things. |
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To produce energy, living things engage in metabolic processes within their bodies. |
Non-living things are incapable of producing energy and lack internal metabolic processes. |
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All living things breathe, and breathing keeps life going. |
Things that are not alive do not require breathing. |
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They exhibit independent locomotion or movement. |
They need to be propelled by an outside force in order to move on their own. |
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Living things exhibit internal growth. |
Things that are not living cannot grow on their own. |
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All living things are capable of reproduction and self-production. |
Non-living things are unable to procreate or give birth to their own offspring. |
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Age, illness, cell death, organ failure, etc. are all causes of death in living things. |
The existence of non-living things never ends unless they are obliterated by an outside force. |
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Excretion is the process by which living things get rid of waste from their bodies. |
Non-living things don't consume food or leave behind waste. Therefore, they do not show the process of excretion. |
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Living things react to environmental stimuli. They show sensitivity to touch and respond according to their surroundings. |
This quality is not present in nonliving things. They do not fall on their own without external force or have senses, and hence, they do not respond to stimuli. |
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Difference Between Cyclic and Noncyclic Photophosphorylation |
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| Difference Between Spermatogenesis and Oogenesis | |
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By - Nikita Parmar 2023-08-25 09:48:44 , 11 min readAns. Abiogenesis, another term for the natural process by which life emerged from non-living matter, is the origin of life. The cause of this is still up for debate among scientists. Up until now, there has been no consensus as to how life on Earth began.
Ans. According to the endosymbiotic theory, the first photosynthetic eukaryote was created through endosymbiosis between a larger cell and a prokaryote. According to this hypothesis, the larger eukaryote may have swallowed prokaryotes inside the cell that later evolved into semi-autonomous organelles like chloroplasts and mitochondria.
Ans. The Cambrian period experienced a sudden explosion of life about 541 million years ago. The Cambrian explosion is what is being referred to here. Different kinds of plants and animals emerged. Animals first set foot on land in the late Cambrian or early Ordovician periods. Land plants evolved, and this led to the diversification and evolution of animals as well. They eventually settled in inland areas as well as terrestrial habitats.
Ans. All living things have the capacity to experience specific life processes. They have the ability to develop, absorb nutrients, breathe, reproduce, get rid of waste, and die. These biological functions are also referred to as the conditions for life.
Ans. Living things are created, develop, reproduce, senescence, and death. All living things, including people, plants, and animals. Living things need air, water, food, and shelter to survive.
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