The living beings are highly complex organisms, which are characterized by a series of characteristic through processes such as are born, grow, develop the capacity to achieve reproduction and eventually die. These organisms are made up of a large number of molecules and atoms that make up an organized system that is constantly in contact with the environment. Likewise, it is important to note that living beings have the ability to exchange energy and matter with the environment.
The basic activities that a living being must carry out are called vital functions, and there are those who list them in 7, the first of which is birth, then it must breathe followed by nutrition or feeding, grow, develop its reproductive capacity and adapt to the environment in which it operates. All beings that fulfill the functions described above can be considered as living beings.
A living being has the ability to function autonomously throughout its life, losing structural properties when they die. The most important structural unit of living beings are cells and within these structures a set of chemical reactions take place that are catalyzed by enzymes. For its part, the matter that makes up cells is mostly made up of so-called bioelements, such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, and it is from them that the so-called biomolecules are formed, both organic and inorganic.
On the other hand, there is also what is known as non-living beings or inert beings, which are all those that do not fulfill any of the vital functions, also classified as abiotic, an example of an abiotic being can be fire or wood, since none can feed or reproduce, therefore, it is impossible to speak of living and inert beings since they are two concepts that contradict each other. When a living being dies, the matter that composes it will not disappear, but will be transformed.
According to the Law of Conservation of Matter, it is established that matter cannot be destroyed, but is transformed, which is applied both for living beings and for inert beings, which will change energy over time.. An example of this is when a living being dies, the matter that makes it up decomposes and as the days go by it will merge with the earth. All those components that made up this living being will now become mineral salts and nutrients that will serve as food for the soil and the products that are harvested in it will serve as food for both animals and humans.
There are several types of living organisms that exist, but there is a variety that draws a lot of attention, and they are autotrophic living beings, which are characterized by using light to make their own food, such as plants, which absorb light. that emanates from the sun and is converted into chemical energy.
Characteristic of Living Things
Table of Contents
Among the most important characteristics that allow distinguishing living beings are the biological aspects that make them consider as such:
- Homeostasis: living beings depend on two elements to survive, the first is the organizational capacity and the other is their stability, which is why they must deal with certain levels of disorder that their body presents, this is done through various strategies with which the internal environment is regulated, especially in aspects such as the concentration of nutrients, temperature and pH.
- Organization: living beings are the consequence of an exact organization. Inside these different processes are carried out at the same time and each of them are related to each other, that is why all living beings have complex organizations at the same time as specific, which are reflected in the quality of that all living things are made up of cells. The cell for its part is considered the most important unit for life to occur, and from there organisms can be divided into unicellular organisms (made up of a single cell), multicellular organisms (made up of two or more cells). Likewise, they are divided into eukaryotes (it has genetic material and nucleus) and prokaryotes (they only have genetic material and no nucleus).
- Relationship: this is undoubtedly one of the most particular and important characteristics. A piece of wood does not have the ability to interact with the environment and to relate, therefore they cannot adapt to the changes that occur in said environment. Living beings can feel various stimuli such as temperature variations, changes in pH, variability in the amount of light, water, sound and others, and it is as a result of these changes that the living being reacts so that they are carried out changes in the functioning of the body and to carry out homeostasis, and in turn preserve life.
- Metabolism: it is through this process that living beings have the ability to process the nutrients found in the environment, in order to produce energy and thus be able to maintain homeostasis, using a portion of the nutrients and reserving the others for those occasions in which they may be scarce. Within the metabolism, two very important processes are carried out, such as catabolism and anabolism. The first of these occurs when the complex compounds that are contained in the nutrients are broken down by means of enzymes and are transformed into molecules of less complexity. In the case of anabolism, less complex substances are transformed into complex substances.
- Irritability: it is an essential quality, defined as the ability to relate to the environment and react to the stimuli that come from that environment. This does not mean that all individuals have the same reactions, but it does reflect the fact that there is no living being that has no relationship with its environment, either to exchange energy or matter.
- Development and growth: the metabolism not only provides energy to propitiate the energy to stay on your feet, but it also offers the energy for the inputs that you use in order to make your structure more complex and to reproduce. All these essential processes cause expenditure of energy and matter, but they make life prolong and that of their descendants.
- Reproduction: it is about the ability to multiply, through reproduction it is possible to give rise to new living beings, which are similar to their parents, not to mention the fact that the species perpetuates itself.
How are living beings
From a chemical point of view, living beings are systems that are supported by highly complex chemical reactions and that are organized in a way that allows reproduction and long-term sustainability of the species and its survival.
Classification of living things
Living organisms encompass more than 1,900,000 known species, and they are divided into kingdoms and domains. The classification that has the most acceptance is the following:
- Animalia or animal kingdom: composed of eukaryotic, heterotrophic and multicellular organisms, which are made up of different tissues whose main characteristic is the ability to move. It is the kingdom with the largest number of described species with a total of 1 million 425 thousand species. This kingdom in turn is subdivided into vertebrates and invertebrates.
- Vertebrates: are those organisms that inside have a skeleton that has a column. They use the locomotor apparatus to move and they in turn are subdivided into birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
- Invertebrates: these for their part do not have a skeleton, inside they lack a column and bones, but they can have some rigid regions. They are classified into worms, mollusks, echinoderms, arthropods, porifers, and coelenterates.
- Kingdom Plants: composed of eukaryotic beings, mostly autotrophic, multicellular and with diverse tissues. The described species exceed 310 thousand and are subdivided into flowering plants and non-flowering plants.
- Kingdom fungi: made up of multicellular or unicellular organisms, eukaryotes,
heterotrophs and thalophytes, whose main characteristic is that food differs
externally. So far the species described are around 100,000.
- Protoctist Kingdom: it is one of the kingdoms with the largest number of heterogeneous groups, made up of eukaryotic cells that are made up of cells with a single well-defined nucleus, these cells also have subdivisions. They are subdivided into red algae and protozoa.
- Mónera Kingdom: it is the kingdom of bacteria, however, it is also made up of the so-called blue-green algae, known in this way to cyanobacteria that are located in different environments, and can be aquatic or terrestrial. There is no doubt that the study of living beings is a fairly complex subject and is that the large number of species that compose it do so, however, throughout the history of man, a large number of methods have emerged that have allowed to advance by leaps and bounds in the study of this subject and its subsequent dissemination, so that everyone has at hand at least the basic knowledge about them.
Nowadays there are many texts that speak about living beings and they are not only intended for a mature audience, but also for the youngest, various ways have also been devised to capture the attention of this subject, an example of this is school texts where you can see living things to color, something that undoubtedly catches the attention of the little ones.
