ArticleBiology direct2016
The essence of life.
Article in Biology direct, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exonuclease Ribozyme Encoded in a Circular Genome: On the Initiation of the RNA World.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Circular at the very beginning: on the initial genomes in the RNA world.RNA biology · 2024Article
- On the definition of a self-sustaining chemical reaction system and its role in heredity.Biology direct · 2020Article
- Psychology Today: Still in Denial, Still Outdated.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2020Article
- The origin of biological homochirality along with the origin of life.PLoS computational biology · 2020Article
- From molecular to cellular form: modeling the first major transition during the arising of life.BMC evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- What Does "the RNA World" Mean to "the Origin of Life"?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
- Tag mechanism as a strategy for the RNA replicase to resist parasites in the RNA world.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
Although biology has achieved great successes in recent years, we have not got a clear idea on "what is life?" Actually, as explained here, the main reason for this situation is that there are two completely distinct aspects for "life", which are usually talked about together. Indeed, in respect to these two aspects: Darwinian evolution and self-sustaining, we must split the concept of life correspondingly, for example, by defining "life form" and "living entity", separately. For life's implementation (related to the two aspects) in nature, three mechanisms are crucial: the replication of DNA/RNA-like polymers by residue-pairing, the sequence-dependent folding of RNA/protein-like polymers engendering special functions, and the assembly of phospholipid-like amphiphiles forming vesicles. The notion "information" is significant for us to comprehend life phenomenon: the life form of a living entity can just be defined by its genetic information; Darwinian evolution is essentially an evolution of such information, transferred across generations. The in-depth analysis concerning the essence of life would improve our cognition in the whole field of biology, and may have a direct influence on its subfields like the origin of life, artificial life and astrobiology. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Anthony Poole and Thomas Dandekar.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.