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Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life?
Despite biology being ‘The study of living organisms’ (Proffitt, 2017), there is no consensus between biologists on the definition of life (Bedau, 2010). Defining life has challenged and divided biologists and philosophers alike ever since Aristotle proposed the first definition. Emerging fields lik...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149470/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biohorizons/hzy006 |
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author | Love, Luca Gregory |
author_facet | Love, Luca Gregory |
author_sort | Love, Luca Gregory |
collection | PubMed |
description | Despite biology being ‘The study of living organisms’ (Proffitt, 2017), there is no consensus between biologists on the definition of life (Bedau, 2010). Defining life has challenged and divided biologists and philosophers alike ever since Aristotle proposed the first definition. Emerging fields like synthetic biology and exobiology have rekindled attempts at establishing a definition of life for practical purposes. The question presents many challenges with each attempt thus far leading to unintended implications and strong counterexamples. It is an inherently multidisciplinary challenge with each approach giving wildly varying and often irreconcilable definitions. The given definitions of life are numerous with over 300 definitions published in books and journals. The unique characteristics of the mimivirus, discovered in 2003, and later giant viruses, rekindled the discussion in defining life, indicating other complications in a definition. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7149470 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-71494702020-04-13 Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? Love, Luca Gregory Bioscience Horizons: The International Journal of Student Research Review Despite biology being ‘The study of living organisms’ (Proffitt, 2017), there is no consensus between biologists on the definition of life (Bedau, 2010). Defining life has challenged and divided biologists and philosophers alike ever since Aristotle proposed the first definition. Emerging fields like synthetic biology and exobiology have rekindled attempts at establishing a definition of life for practical purposes. The question presents many challenges with each attempt thus far leading to unintended implications and strong counterexamples. It is an inherently multidisciplinary challenge with each approach giving wildly varying and often irreconcilable definitions. The given definitions of life are numerous with over 300 definitions published in books and journals. The unique characteristics of the mimivirus, discovered in 2003, and later giant viruses, rekindled the discussion in defining life, indicating other complications in a definition. Oxford University Press 2018 2018-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7149470/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biohorizons/hzy006 Text en © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Review Love, Luca Gregory Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title | Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title_full | Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title_fullStr | Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title_full_unstemmed | Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title_short | Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
title_sort | does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life? |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149470/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biohorizons/hzy006 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lovelucagregory doesthediscoveryofthemimiviruscallintoquestionattemptstodefinelife |