Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34318436›Full record

ArticleMolecular biology reports2021

What is life?

Jaime Gómez-Márquez

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular biology reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Biomolecular Basis of Life.Metabolites · 2025
    Review
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Reflections upon a new definition of life.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Jaime Gómez-MárquezDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology - CIBUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. jaime.gomez.marquez@usc.es.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6962-1348

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMany traditional biological concepts continue to be debated by biologists, scientists and philosophers of science. The specific objective of this brief reflection is to offer an alternative vision to the definition of life taking as a starting point the traits common to all living beings. RESULTS AND

conclusionsThus, I define life as a process that takes place in highly organized organic structures and is characterized by being preprogrammed, interactive, adaptative and evolutionary. If life is the process, living beings are the system in which this process takes place. I also wonder whether viruses can be considered living things or not. Taking as a starting point my definition of life and, of course, on what others have thought about it, I am in favor of considering viruses as living beings. I base this conclusion on the fact that viruses satisfy all the vital characteristics common to all living things and on the role they have played in the evolution of species. Finally, I argue that if there were life elsewhere in the universe, it would be very similar to what we know on this planet because the laws of physics and the composition of matter are universal and because of the principle of the inexorability of life.

Indexed as

LifeAdaptation, BiologicalAnimalsBacteriaBiological EvolutionExobiologyHumansVirusesExtraterrestrial lifeLife definitionLiving virusesRobots

Identifiers

PMID34318436
PMCPMC8376694

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.