Handwrite your answer to this question on the sheet provided (both sides OK). Yo
ID: 109491 • Letter: H
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Handwrite your answer to this question on the sheet provided (both sides OK). You may include ONE extra page of drawings, handwritten descriptor photo s. and illustrations to illuminate your response. Refer to your class lecture and video notes, handouts, and texts. What are the main differences between a living organism (like the one that you observed in the wild) and a stone artifact (like the hand axes (Acheulean bifaces) that Doc Johnson showed you In class)? Be sure to consider the unifying themes of biology such as Ceil Theory, the hierarchic organization of life, the nature of genes, the functions of DNA, the processes of heredity, the theory of Deep Time, the Geologic Time Scale, as well the conceptual frameworks of Earth-Life History and the evolutionary Tree of Life.Explanation / Answer
The difference between living and non-living matter is not only of great interest and challenge for science but also has philosophical and cultural impact. The question whether the living world is fundamentally different from the non-living world has been widely discussed in natural philosophy. The main difference between living and non-living things is that a living organism is or was once alive, whereas a non-living thing has never been alive.
Non-living is not the same as being dead because non-living things were never alive and therefore cannot die. These are the signs of life: a highly organized and complex structure; the maintenance of a chemical composition distinct from their surroundings; the ability to take in, transform and use energy from their environment; a response to outside stimuli; the ability to reproduce; and the capacity to grow and develop.
The emergence of novel technologies such as artificial life, Nano-biotechnology and synthetic biology are definitely blurring the boundary between our understanding of living and non-living matter. All plants and animals are living organisms. Not all living organisms move in an obvious way. Some, such as trees and coral, move in small increments, while others, such as people and animals, move much more clearly. Not all living organisms reproduce in the same way either.
A fungus reproduces asexually (without a partner) via spores that migrate and grow new fungi. Earthworms are hermaphroditic, however, which means that each earthworm biologically has male and female parts but needs a partner to fertilize an egg to make new earthworms. Nonliving things do not have any of the signs of life mentioned above. Usually, nonliving things, such as pots and pans or silverware, are made of plastics or metals.
On the other hand, objects made from wood or natural fibers, including cotton and yarn, are viewed as "living" due to the fact that they were once alive. Stones, rocks, sand and water are considered non-living because they were never alive, but each of these may have living organisms, such as micro-organisms, inside them. Nevertheless, even with the knowledge that living organisms follow the same chemical and physical laws as non-living matter but can develop novel properties by emergence it can be argued that there are differences for example between the traditional meaning of living organism and that of machine.
Geologists and paleontologists measure the Age of the Earth and the History of Life in millions and billions of years. The entire history of humankind is but a blink of an eye next to the vastness of geological time. The Geologic Time-Scale is divided into units. From the largest to smallest these are: Eons, Eras, Periods and Epochs. Each of these time periods had different conditions and unique ecosystems. Their beginning and end are often marked by some event such as a mass extinction, the appearance of new life, a change in the rocks' magnetic signature, or by human convention. The oldest eons, eras and periods are at the bottom and the youngest at the top. The reason for this convention is that the Time-Scale symbolically represents the layers of sedimentary rocks that make up the Earth's crust. The earlier, older layers were deposited first, and the later, younger ones on top of them. For this reason the time units also refer to layers of rock for instance, dinosaurs lived during the Jurassic Period, and dinosaur fossils can be found in Jurassic rocks.
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