Characteristics of Life

in this video, we're going to talk about the characteristics of life. And so, despite the incredible diversity of life, all living organisms, regardless if they're uni, cellular or multi cellular organisms, share eight characteristics that distinguish them from the non living things that surround them. And so notice that down below we have this table that's showing us the eight characteristics that all living organisms share. And so let's go through each of these one by one. And so the very first characteristic that all living organisms share is that they are all composed of cells, which you might recall in our previous lesson videos we defined as the smallest unit of life or the smallest thing that we can call alive. And so here we have a little image that represents a cell and again, as we move forward in our course, will be able to talk Maura Maura about these cells now the second characteristic that all living organisms share is organization. All living things are organized, and so this is referring to the ability of all living organisms to use smaller structures, toe build larger and more complex structures, just like this tiny little Lego piece can be utilized to build Ah larger, more complex Lego house and as we move forward in our course, will be able to talk about the biological levels of organization that life uses now. The third characteristic of life is the ability for all living organisms to respond to environmental stimuli, essentially responding to changes in the environment. Just like this, plant here is able to respond to the light source and grow towards the light source, and all living organisms are capable of responding to stimuli in the environment. Now, the fourth characteristic that all living organisms share is the ability to maintain home eo Stasis, which is really just referring to the ability for all living organisms to stabilize suitable living conditions. So not only do living organisms respond to their environments, but they respond to their environments in such a way to help maintain suitable living conditions. Because sometimes we go outside and it's really, really cold outside and other times we go outside and it's really, really hot outside and so the environment is constantly changing. But in order for living organisms to survive, they need to maintain suitable living conditions on the inside and so a classic example of maintaining home yo Stasis is when our bodies start to sweat when they overheat. And that sweating allows our bodies to cool down when the environment is super, super hot, allowing us to maintain internal temperatures that are constant now. The fifth characteristic that's shared by all living things is reproduction or the ability to reproduce. And this is referring to the ability for all living organisms to produce life either sexually or a sexually, sexually, of course, means that they're going to be two parents involved, whereas a sexually means that there's only going to be one parent involved. And we'll be able to talk Maura about reproduction much later in our course, in a different video when we're talking about mitosis and my, oh sis. But for now, just know that one of the characteristics of life is the ability to reproduce and create mawr life. Now, the six characteristic of life is that all living organisms are going to acquire and utilize energy from the surroundings, just like Popeye. The sailor over here has thio eat spinach from the surroundings in order to acquire his energy, and all living organisms need to be able to acquire and utilize energy from the surroundings. Now, the seventh characteristic of life is hereditary information and that they all contain hereditary information. And actually, the molecule DNA is going to function as the genetic material of life. And so here we're showing you a DNA molecule and we'll be able to talk more about the genetic material or the hereditary material of DNA later in our course. But for now, just know that hereditary information of DNA is found in all living organisms. Now, last but not least, we have the eighth characteristic of life, and this is evolution and evolution is response is referring to changes in the DNA sequences of a population over time for adaptation and improved survival in the environment. And so later in our course will be able to talk mawr about evolution and natural selection. But for now, just know that evolution is something that occurs in all living organisms. And really, this is it for the eight characteristics of life. And so going over this just a few times, you guys should be able to get this down pretty nicely now. One thing to note is that viruses such as the coronavirus, for instance, are not considered alive. And that's because viruses lack some of these characteristics of life. And later, in our course, again, in a different video, we'll be able to talk mawr about viruses. But for now, you guys should just note that viruses are not considered alive. And so this here concludes our introduction to the characteristics of life. And as we move forward in our course, we'll be able to get MAWR practice applying these concepts so I'll see you guys in our next video.

Alright, So here we're looking at an example problem that's asking which of the following is not a characteristic of life. And we've got these four potential answer options down below now because we're looking for the option. That is not a characteristic of life, Really. We're looking for the false answer option because it's gonna be the one that is not a characteristic of life and so option a says structure of an organism based on hierarchy of organization. And of course, we know that one of the major characteristics of life is that they have organization and so option A. To say that the structure of an organism is based on a hierarchy of organization is actually a true statement again because it's referring to the organization characteristic. And because it is true, it's not the false answer option that we're looking for so we can eliminate answer. Option A. Now moving on to option B. It says the ability to establish a constant internal temperature despite the fact that the temperatures of the environment are constantly changing. And so this is referring to the ability to maintain home eo Stasis, and we know that maintaining homo Stasis is definitely a characteristic of life. So this is once again a true answer option, which means that we can eliminate Answer option B because it's not the false answer option that we're looking for. So now we're between either option C or option D and notice. Option C says the ability to convert sunlight energy into chemical energy. Whereas D says DNA molecule that stores genetic and hereditary information now recall that the hereditary information of using DNA, uh is a characteristic shared by all living organisms. All living organisms used a DNA molecule as the hereditary molecule for to store hereditary information. And so once again, we're saying that Option D here is true again because it's referring to hereditary information and DNA on so we can go ahead and eliminate Answer Option D because it's not the false answer option that we're looking for. And so this Onley leaves answer options. See here as the false answer option that we're looking for now, Uh, the ability to convert sunlight into chemical energy is something that some living organisms have. But it is not a characteristic of life shared by all living organisms. And so, for that reason This is actually the false answer option that we were looking for and so we could go ahead and mark C as the answer that we were looking for and that concludes this practice or this example, so I'll see you guys in our next practice problem.