Abstract
What is life? We all know a living thing when we see it, but when you get right down to it, it’s hard to come up with a consistent definition. For instance, plants grow and are alive, but crystals, which also grow, are not alive. What is the difference? In 1944, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger presented a very simple definition of life that has withstood the test of time. He identified one property that all life shares: living things avoid decay into equilibrium.
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Goodsell, D.S. (2009). The Processes of Living. In: The Machinery of Life. Copernicus, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84925-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84925-6_3
Publisher Name: Copernicus, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84924-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84925-6
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