Difference between living and non-living matter.

All matter on the planet is divided into living and nonliving matter. And although it would seem that there is no problem in distinguishing one from the other, in fact, no one knows exactly where the transition from non-living to living is. Let's try to determine the difference between living matter and non-living matter. What is living substance?

Vernadsky defines living matter as a collection of living organisms in the biosphere.

Conclusions TheDifference.ru

  1. Living matter has a much lower total mass in contrast to nonliving matter (2.4-3.6 × 1012tons, which is less than one millionth of the mass of other shells of our planet). At the same time, living matter plays a very important role in the biosphere.
  2. The area of ​​existence of living matter is limited to a site at the intersection of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
  3. In living matter, chemical reactions proceed much faster, in contrast to chemical reactions in inanimate matter (the difference can be thousands or millions of times)
  4. Living matter has much more free energy than inanimate matter.
  5. A change of generations is inherent in living matter in the presence of evolution (that is, each next generation has a number of new features)
  6. Living matter has a much greater chemical and morphological diversity. It cannot be presented only in liquid or gaseous form - organisms are built in all three states. Man knows more than 2 million organic compounds that make up living matter, while inanimate matter consists of about 2 thousand compounds.
  7. The components of living matter are stable only in living organisms
  8. Living matter exists in the form of individual organisms, the sizes of which can vary greatly. So, for example, the size of viruses does not exceed 20 nm (1 nm = 10-9 m), the giants of the animal world, whales grow no more than 33 m in length, and such giant plants, such as sequoias, can be more than 100 m in height (absolute record - sequoia "Hyperion", height 115.5 meters.
  9. A living creature is largely inherent in self-regulating movement.
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