Living systems maintain organized activity through metabolism and can participate in inherited evolution. No short definition settles every boundary case: a virus depends on cellular machinery, while a dormant seed can remain alive without obvious movement or growth.
The origin of life from nonliving chemical systems. Research asks how chemical reactions, compartments and inheritance could become coupled before modern cells existed; this historical question differs from the claim that complex organisms routinely appear in present-day infusions.
The historical hypothesis that familiar living organisms arise directly from nonliving preparations. Experiments controlling contamination challenged this account: preventing access by organisms while retaining exposure to air tests whether growth requires a biological source. This does not experimentally rule out ancient abiogenesis.
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