Biology question for my biology class. Thanks for help ?

Question

Pretend that you found an object that looks like an organism, how might you determine if your discovery is indeed alive?

Answer 1

There is no one thing that can distinguish a living from a non-living thing. But if I was trying to make a decision about a particular organism I would try to determine if it had any of these 10 characteristics:

1. Movement (does it move on it's own?)

2. Responsiveness (does it react to external stimuli?)

3. Growth (does it grow in size without changing shape?)

4. Reproduction (does it produce offspring or new cells)

5. Respiration (does it breathe? not necessarily oxygen)

6. Digestion (does it eat?)

7. Absorption (does it absorb nutrients?)

8. Circulation (do substances move from place to place through body fluid?)

9. Assimilation (does it change absorbed substances into chemically different form?)

10.  Excretion (does it excrete waste?)

Answer 2

Test to see if it fulfills the following requirements:

    * Reproduction by cell division (binary fission, mitosis or meiosis).

    * Use of enzymes and other proteins coded for by DNA genes and made via messenger RNA intermediates and ribosomes.

    * Metabolism, including taking in raw materials, building cell components, converting energy, molecules and releasing by-products. The functioning of a cell depends upon its ability to extract and use chemical energy stored in organic molecules. This energy is derived from metabolic pathways.

    * Response to external and internal stimuli such as changes in temperature, pH or nutrient levels.