What is life?

"What is life?" The question has been asked innumerable times but has been answered to the satisfaction of few. Science is based on the experience that nature gives intelligent answers to intelligent questions. To senseless questions, nature gives senseless answers - or no answers at all. If nature has never provided an answer to this question, perhaps something is wrong with the question.

The question is wrong indeed. It has no sense, for life in itself does not exist. No one has seen or measured life. Life is always linked to material systems; what man sees and measures are living systems of matter. Life is not a thing to be studied; rather, "being alive" is a quality of some physical systems.

A look at the living world reveals an incredible variety of shapes, sizes, forms, and colors. There seems to be an infinite variability among living systems. How can man approach such complexity? How can he ask intelligent questions?

One key to an intelligent approach may be the simple fact that things can be put together in two different ways: randomly or meaningfully. Things put together in random fashion form a senseless heap. Nine persons selected at random and placed together probably will form nothing more than a slightly puzzled collection of nine individuals. Nine persons selected and combined in a meaningful fashion may form a championship baseball team. The whole in this case is more than the sum of its parts - it is what is called organization.

If an atomic nucleus is combined with electrons, an atom is formed. This atom is something entirely new, quite different from electrons or nuclei alone. When atoms are combined, molecules are formed. Again, a new thing is generated with strikingly different qualities. Smaller molecules - say, amino acids - may be combined to form a "macromolecule" - perhaps a protein. This macromolecule has a number of amazing qualities. It demonstrates self-organization - the ability to create more complex, higher structures. It may act as an enzyme to speed up a particular chemical reaction, or it may act as an antibody to neutralize the effects of some other specific protein molecule. Proteins can be created in a literally inexhaustible variety of forms, each with its own qualities.

Macromolelcules may be combined to form small "organelles", such as mitochondria or muscle fibrils. When they are combined, the resul...

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...ces of survival of individuals. I must believe that man built a speech center when he had something to say, and he developed the structure of this center to higher complexity as he had more and more to say. I cannot accept the notion that this capacity arose through random alterations, relying on the survival of the fittest. I believe that some principle must have guided the development toward the kind of speech center that was needed.

Water B. Cannon, the greatest of American physiologists, often spoke of the "wisdom of the body." I doubt whether he could have given a more scientific definition of this "wisdom." He probably had in mind some guiding principle, driving life toward harmonious function, toward self-improvement.

Life is a wondrous phenomenon. I can only hope that some day man will achieve a deeper insight into its nature and its guiding principles and will be able to express them in more exact terms. It is this mysterious quality of life that makes biology the most fascinating of sciences. To express the marvels of nature in the language of science is one of man's noblest endeavors. I see no reason to expect the completion of that task within the near future.