The surface of our planet is populated by living things—organisms—curious, intricately organized chemical factories that take in matter from their surroundings and use these raw materials to generate copies of themselves. These organisms appear extraordinarily diverse. What could be more different than a tiger and a piece of seaweed or a butterfly and a tree? Yet our ancestors, knowing nothing of cells or DNA, saw that all these things had something in common. They called that something “life,” marveled at it, struggled to define it, and despaired of explaining what it was or how it worked in terms that relate to non-living matter.
–What is life | Video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
