Question

Please describe the 7 characteristics for living organisms. Give an example of an organism demonstrating each characteristic that was not mentioned in this part of your text book.

Living organisms are complicated and highly organized:

Biological structures serve functional purposes:

Living system are actively engaged in energy transformations:

Living system have a remarkable capacity for self-replication

Response to environment:   

Evolutionary adaptation:

Regulation:

Answer 1

1. Living organisms are complicated and highly organized:

They possess intricate internal structures and contain many kinds of complex molecules. By contrast, the inanimate matter in our environment-clay, sand, rocks, seawater-usually consists of mixtures of relatively simple chemical compounds.

2. Biological structures serve functional purposes:

Each component of a living organism has a specific function. This is true not only of macroscopic structures such as leaves and stems or hearts and lungs, but also of microscopic intracellular structures such as the nucleus or chloroplast.

Even individual chemical compounds in cells have specific functions. The interplay among the chemical components of a living organism is dynamic; changes in one component cause coordinating or compensating changes in another, with the result that the whole ensemble displays a character beyond that of the individual constituents.

The collection of molecules carries out a program, the end result of which is the reproduction of the program and the self perpetuation of that collection of molecules.

3. Living system are actively engaged in energy transformations:

Living organisms extract, transform, and use energy from their environment, usually in the form of either chemical nutrients or the radiant energy of sunlight. This energy enables living organisms to build and maintain their own intricate structures and to do mechanical, chemical, osmotic, and other types of work.

By contrast, inanimate matter does not use energy in a systematic way to maintain structure or to do work. Inanimate matter tends to decay toward a more disordered state, to come to equilibrium with its surroundings.

4. Living system have a remarkable capacity for self-replication:

This property that can be regarded as the quintessence of the living state. A single bacterial cell placed in a sterile nutrient medium can give rise to a billion identical "daughter" cells in 24 hours.

Each of the cells contains thousands of different molecules, some extremely complex; yet each bacterium is a faithful copy of the original, constructed entirely from information contained within the genetic material of the original cell.

By contrast, mixtures of inanimate matter show no capacity to grow and reproduce in forms identical in mass, shape, and internal structure, generation after generation.

5. Response to environment:

This often results in movement of the individual toward safety. This helps to ensure survival of the organism. For example, as young children we learned to avoid hot stoves and busy streets.

Plants also have some limited ability to move. They grow up toward the sun, and some have leaves able to turn to follow the sun, allowing them to photosynthesize better. Their roots grow down to search for water and minerals. If a plant doesn't get enough sunlight, water or minerals it will die.

6. Evolutionary adaptation:

Modifications enable an organism to survive in its environment. Natural selection allows individuals with better adaptations to survive better and reproduce more.

Thus, their characteristics are passed into future generations and that makes the species stronger. However, it is important to note that individuals can only adapt to their environment, and species don’t adapt, they evolve.

7. Regulation:

Living organisms possess specific conditions that they must maintain for survival. The ability to regulate conditions such as temperature, nutrients and water are essential for survival. Homeostasis, a stable balance of internal conditions against external forces is a condition that must be kept.

Example of an organism that demonstrates each characteristic:

A bird needs to do these things to be classified as living. Since a bird does all of these things, birds are classified as living things. They are made of cells, eat worms and other things for energy, use energy to fly etc., reproduce fly away when someone gets too close, and adapt to blend in with their environment.

(Since nothing have been mentioned with respect to the example given in the text book, bird has been given as an example which exhibit all the characteristics. Please comment if more examples are required)