Science values VS Definitions

As Sagan, and Schrödinger clearly demonstrated, the definitions of life change

accordingly to the different science values. For instance one can value proteins instead
of nucleic acids or metabolism instead self-replication.

An historical review of the definitions of life shows that there has been a gradual
inclusion of new scientific achievements in the understanding of life. In the definition of
life given in 1894 by Engels, “Life is the existence form of proteic structures, and this
existence form consists essentially in the constant selfrenewal of the chemical
components of these structures” (Engels, 1894). Is interesting to remember that Engels
knew about Haeckel’s work, and the latter knew about Rolle’s ideas, but that none of
them at that time knew what proteins really were (Luisi, P. 1998).

Another interesting example for an historical analysis is the definition proposed at the
turn of the 20th century: “life is a form of the existence of protein bodies supporting
themselves by an exchange of matter with their surroundings”. It is interesting because
initially the “protein body” meant “the organism”, with the additional characteristic of
its “protoplasmic” content. However, after discovering the role of DNA in heredity,
there were attempts to improve this definition by substituting the term “protein body”
by “DNA body”. But then with the formulation of the RNA-world idea, this definition
came into disuse (Zhuravlev, Y. 2006). Nevertheless, this case is a good example to
demonstrate how new knowledge can change the content of the definition of the
familiar object.

Another historical analysis is the one made by Cleland and Chyba (2002) defend that
“defining life currently poses a dilemma analogous to that faced by those hoping to
define ‘water’ before the existence of molecular theory” as we are trying to define it in
terms of the observable features used to recognize it.

When it comes to the present days, it is believed that there has been a dramatic shift in
the past 50 years when it comes to the question of life as it is no longer a search for the
principles of life but a historical issue. With this in mind, the question is no longer
‘‘What characteristics are found in organisms but not in inanimate objects?’’ but ‘‘How
were these characteristics progressively associated within objects that we call
organisms?’’ (Tirard, S. 2010). Altought last century’s impressive advances in
molecular biology have revealed a great biochemical unity of all living forms, it is not
clear to what extent this can serve to extract general biological principles or if it just
derives from having a universal common ancestor of all terrestrial life (Ruiz-Mirazo, K.
et al 2002).

From the viewpoint of contemporary biology, a proper understanding of the minimal

properties required for a system to be considered alive requires the recognition of the
evolutionary processes that led to the system itself (Cleland and Chyba 2002). Besides
that, important characteristics of life, such as whole system-, ecosystem-, and
information-defined characteristics, have been included in definitions of life only
recently. In fact, that the interconnections between living and non-living components of
a primordial evolving system are decisive for the period of transition from chemical to
biological evolution (Zhuravlev, Y. 2006) and thus it is believed that the appearance of
life was marked by the transition from purely chemical reactions to autonomous,
reproducing entities capable of evolving by natural selection (Cleland and Chyba 2002).

Furthermore, Tirard agrees that the attempts to define life must distinguish between the
simplest possible life form and more complex organisms such as plants and animals. He
says that definitions of life must be open and not limited by our current state of
knowledge and that perhaps what is required is more a framework than a precise
definition. However, answers to the question of what is life will be provided by
different specialists working on different problems and from diverse perspectives,
ranking from the origin of life on Earth, to synthetic biology, to the search for
extraterrestrial life (Tirard, S. 2010).

The case of Astrobiology

When it comes to the search of extraterrestrial life, there is Astrobiology. This is a

science that has developed very rapidly in recent years (mostly due to the dawn of the