If I had a microscope that could see atoms and molecules, how far out would I need to zoom before I could tell I was looking at life?
I’ve heard things like “people are 70% water” but water is not alive.
I’m asking in chemistry because I’m not sure if life at a molecular level is considered biology.
In: Chemistry
The level of cells is where it would become really clear. Beneath that you could see proteins, which are complex and interact with each other in interesting ways, but a cell is the building block that grows, eats, moves at least a little, and makes copies of itself. I feel like that’s recognizable as “life-like”.
You could try to argue for nucleic acids, which have the ability to replicate and carry complex information, but that alone might not suffice and they need outside help (which cells provide) to successfully copy themselves, and to actually use the genes they carry.
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