Reflections on Keywords: Definition, Life and Origin

Would a definition of life be really helpful? Undoubtedly, scientists have to specify what they are trying to reproduce in the laboratory. The same applies when implementing a space mission to discover life beyond the Earth.

As for mathematics, the primary role of a definition is to be useful in demonstration. But what demonstration can be expected when over 100 definitions of life exist, often in conflict with one another [1,2,3]? I am tempted to follow Jack Szostak in stating that “Attempts to define life do not help to understand the origin of life” [4], but attempts to understand the origin of life will likely eventually help in our ongoing endeavour to define life.

It may be more judicious to describe life by listing the capabilities required rather than confining life into a rigid framework. In this respect, the chemist, through his laboratory experiments, approaches the question of origins without a priori convictions. Without unshakeable loyalty to a concept, hypotheses are postulated, which are then confirmed or refuted by experimental facts or demonstrations. In the absence of fossil traces of prebiotic events, he is searching, step by step, for the different types of functions that may have driven the chemistry of the first living systems.

Reflections on Keywords: Definition, Life and Origin. Life, (open access)

Astrobiology, Biology,