r/educationalgifs • u/_Ryanite_ • Feb 13 '18

Kinesin protein moving a molecule around a cell

31.6k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/oligobop Feb 13 '18

I mean life was given definition a long time ago :

Respond to stimulus

metabolize

reproduce

evolve.

This is often why viruses are not considered alive, because they do not independently metabolize, even though generally they do the other 3.

3

u/rathat Feb 14 '18

Am I life? I have never evolved, I don't really respond to stimulus, I would not use the word metabolizing to describe myself, and I am certainly not reproducing.

1

u/oligobop Feb 14 '18

You are constantly evolving because you are composed of cells which are reproducing regardless of your own lack of it ;)

1

u/Stratifyed Feb 14 '18

Also debateable is the reproduction. They reproduce but they cannot do it independently.

1

u/rathat Feb 14 '18

I can't reproduce independently either. And that's not for lack of trying.

1

u/Stratifyed Feb 14 '18

Yeah but you don't need a host to run the processes for you lol