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There are still some cool edge-cases. Is a sperm cell alive? An X-chromosome sperm (do X-chromosome sperm have a (probabilistic N)-stage lifecycle?) Are red
by benlivengood 6y ago
There are still some cool edge-cases. Is a sperm cell alive? An X-chromosome sperm (do X-chromosome sperm have a (probabilistic N)-stage lifecycle?) Are red blood cells alive? Is every molecule of an organism that's alive also considered alive, or just the ensemble? If only the ensemble, are mitochondria alive?
- dandanua 6y agoAlso, why we consider a single human as living organism, but not a society? Single human without society is a pitiful and helpless chunk of meat, who unable to replicate btw.
- ealloc 6y agoSperm cells can be seen as a haploid phase of many organisms' lifecycle, so are alive by pretty much any definition. In humans, the haploid phase of the lifecycle is single-celled, while the diploid phase is multicellular. In contrast, in mosses and fungi the haploid phase is multicellular while the diploid phase (sporophytes/zygote) is single-celled. Red blood cells are discussed in the article.
- gus_massa 6y ago> Is a sperm cell alive? The unfertilized eggs of bees become drones, so they must be alive. As a side effect, this indirectly make bee-like insects evolve a lifestyle with a big colony with a queen. In fungus, most of the life is as haploid (i.e. a single copy of the chromosomes, like sperm and eggs) instead of diploids (i.e. two copies of each chromosomes, like most of our cells.) In some ¿unicellular organism? [I can't find a good link now] the haploid and diploid versions are almost equal. [And plants are also weird, some have 4 or 6 copies of the chromosomes instead of 2.]