* What are living and non-living beings?
Living things become non-living things because living things get life from non-living things!!???
# Characteristics of Living Things:
- Growth: Living things grow but not non-living entities. The cells in the living body can increase body mass by entering into the mitotic division and they can add material to the growing organism.
- Reproduction: Living things can reproduce the next generation of organisms but non-living things do not.
- Metabolism: Living things show metabolic reactions (catabolic or anabolic reactions) but non-living things do not show any metabolism.
- Consciousness: Living things respond to environmental stimuli whereas non-living things do not respond to environmental stimuli (no consciousness). The interesting fact is living and non-living moieties are made up of the same type of elements such as Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen etc. But why do non-living things haven’t life? The answer to this is differences in the “organization” of elements. In living things, this organization is systematic whereas in non-living things it is unorganized and orderless. Organisms become non-living things (die) on disruption of order or organization. During the origin of life on the earth in the primitive environment, the above-mentioned elements (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen etc.) were randomly combined and the randomness led to systematic organization, made possible for the first birth on this planet, the self-replicating and reproducing RNA! Later every living being evolved on this earth. That is the story of matter and life.