Talk:Life

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Life article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: 30 days

Life has been listed as one of the Natural sciences good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
October 17, 2007	Peer review	Not reviewed
June 13, 2012	Peer review	Reviewed
December 30, 2015	Good article nominee	Not listed
April 4, 2016	Good article nominee	Not listed
May 6, 2016	Peer review	Reviewed
August 7, 2022	Peer review	Reviewed
September 27, 2023	Good article nominee	Listed
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on November 5, 2023. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that life* exists in every part of the biosphere, from the deepest parts of the ocean* (bacterium pictured) to altitudes of up to 40 miles (64 km) in the atmosphere?
Current status: Good article

Biology Top‑importance

	Biology portal Life is part of the WikiProject Biology, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to biology on Wikipedia. Leave messages on the WikiProject talk page.BiologyWikipedia:WikiProject BiologyTemplate:WikiProject BiologyBiology articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tree of Life Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Tree of Life, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of taxonomy and the phylogenetic tree of life on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Tree of LifeWikipedia:WikiProject Tree of LifeTemplate:WikiProject Tree of Lifetaxonomic articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Animals High‑importance

Life is within the scope of WikiProject Animals, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to animals and zoology. For more information, visit the project page.AnimalsWikipedia:WikiProject AnimalsTemplate:WikiProject Animalsanimal articles

High

This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Animals To-do:

Here are some Open Tasks :

Copyedit:
Merge: GLAM/ARKive donated texts into articles about endangered species.
Improve: Photoperiodism, Tool use by non-human animals, Omnivore, Animal suicide, Sphaerium beckmani (a species in family Sphaeriidae),
Requests:
- Mammals:
- Invertebrates: Campocraspedon
- Fishes: Zaniolepis frenata
Merge: GLAM/ARKive donated texts into articles about endangered species.
Expand: Junqueira cow, Atka mackerel
Nominate and vote: Science collaboration of the month, Article Improvement Drive, WikiProject Animals Collaboration

Microbiology Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Microbiology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Microbiology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MicrobiologyWikipedia:WikiProject MicrobiologyTemplate:WikiProject MicrobiologyMicrobiology articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Plants High‑importance

	Plants portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Plants, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of plants and botany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PlantsWikipedia:WikiProject PlantsTemplate:WikiProject Plantsplant articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Fungi Mid‑importance

	Fungi portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Fungi, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Fungi on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FungiWikipedia:WikiProject FungiTemplate:WikiProject FungiFungi articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Algae Low‑importance

	This article is part of WikiProject Algae, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the photosynthetic organisms commonly called algae and related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.AlgaeWikipedia:WikiProject AlgaeTemplate:WikiProject AlgaeAlgae articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Marine life (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Marine life, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Marine lifeWikipedia:WikiProject Marine lifeTemplate:WikiProject Marine lifeMarine life articles

Science Top‑importance

	Science portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Science on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject ScienceTemplate:WikiProject Sciencescience articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Palaeontology Mid‑importance

	Paleontology portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Palaeontology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of palaeontology-related topics and create a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use resource on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PalaeontologyWikipedia:WikiProject PalaeontologyTemplate:WikiProject PalaeontologyPalaeontology articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Philosophy: Ethics High‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles

High

This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Associated task forces:
/
	Ethics

Environment Top‑importance

	Environment portal This environment-related article is part of the WikiProject Environment to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the environment. The aim is to write neutral and well-referenced articles on environment-related topics, as well as to ensure that environment articles are properly categorized. Read Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ and leave any messages at the project talk page.EnvironmentWikipedia:WikiProject EnvironmentTemplate:WikiProject EnvironmentEnvironment articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

There is a request, submitted by Sdkb, for an audio version of this article to be created. For further information, see WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia.

The rationale behind the request is: "Level-1 vital article".

Book "How Life Works" (2023) worth considering?

Latest comment: 7 months ago3 comments2 people in discussion

A review by scientist Denis Noble of a new book entitled "How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology" (2023) by Philip Ball (editor of the journal Nature) may be worth considering?^[1] - iac - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 04:53, 6 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

References

^ Noble, Denis (5 February 2024). "Book Review of "How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology" by Philip Ball, Pan Macmillan (2023) - It's time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life - The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book". Nature. 626: 254–255. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00327-x. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Drbogdan (talk) 04:53, 6 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi , I've read it. There's nothing new. Graham Beards (talk) 14:19, 12 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

"Non-cellular life" in infobox

Latest comment: 6 months ago6 comments2 people in discussion

As far as I'm aware, the biological community generally does not regard such entities as lifeforms. I am in favor of removing this. Anonymous 15:23, 19 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

As far as I am aware, the biological community has yet to agree on a definition of life. So I disagree, it should be kept. Graham Beards (talk) 16:05, 19 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Graham Beards, as far as I'm aware, and you can be too if you read the respective articles, Wikipedia does not refer to viruses, virusoids, and viroids as being alive. The idea that viruses might be considered alive is brought up on their respective article, but the articles on virusoids and viroids do not even entertain such an idea. Given that the latter two are essentially just bits of RNA, should we also add rRNA, mRNA, etc. to the infobox? Regardless, my main point is that we should have some consistency within Wikipedia itself. Anonymous 19:25, 24 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi, first of all please have a look at Wikipedia is not a reliable source and other stuff exists. I wrote Virus and much of Viroid, so I don't need to read the articles. Regarding consistency within Wikipedia, there is no such policy or guideline. Each article stands or falls on its own merit. So I am sticking to my argument that "the biological community has yet to agree on a definition of life. So I disagree, it should be kept." Graham Beards (talk) 19:47, 24 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Can you provide me a reliable source describing either viroids or virusoids as alive? Furthermore, if any infectious agent is being regarded as a lifeform, then prions might as well be added to the list. Anonymous 23:31, 24 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Can you provide a reliable source for what "alive" means? I doubt it because as I said above " the biological community has yet to agree on a definition of life". The existence of "non-cellular life" makes a definition elusive. You might find this paper interesting: Moelling K, Broecker F (March 2021). "Viroids and the Origin of Life". International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 22 (7). doi:10.3390/ijms22073476. PMC 8036462. PMID 33800543.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) Graham Beards (talk) 09:38, 25 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

Meaning & definition of life

Latest comment: 2 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I don't get the point of contention surrounding its meaning or purpose where this statement: "Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not." Very well captures the universal essence of life? Wikicmon (talk) 07:29, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

It's not our prerogative to ignore the controversy and complexity reflected in what sources say on the matter just because we personally find a certain definition sufficient. Remsense ‥ 论 07:46, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Add topic

[NAT-20240205-1] Noble, Denis (5 February 2024). "Book Review of "How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology" by Philip Ball, Pan Macmillan (2023) - It's time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life - The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book". Nature. 626: 254–255. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00327-x. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

[1]