The Concept and

Definition of Life
What makes a (thing)
alive?
Brain Warmer
Remeber the Characteristics of Living things?
 What makes a (thing) alive?
- Livings things contain cells
- No, cells are not alive. =
- Some living organisms sacrifice ≠
their life for the survival of DNA

So what is life?
Humans?
Processes?
DNA and Genetic Information?
We only ask
ourselves more We’ll have to wait for technology to answer as
questions
we learn more about ourselves and AI
What makes a (thing) alive?

4:55
What makes a (thing) alive?

Electromagnetic field theory

 The creation of
life and consciousness
What do you know
about life?
How is life created?
Electric Sparks
Amino acids and sugars could be
created by electric sparks in an
atmosphere loaded with water,
methane, ammonia and hydrogen

These substances could be carried

into the sky by volcanic clouds and
filled with electricity from
lightnings
Miller-Urey experiment
An experiment to observe the
creation of life by reproducing the
conditions in the primitive Earth by
Stanley Miller and Harold Urey
from the University of Chicago in
1953

Life may have formed from a combination of

inorganic compounds and energy
 Clay Theory
What does clay do?
• Concentrate organic compounds together
• Help organize organic compounds into
patterns
Organic molecules might later take over the job
and organize themselves

Introduced by Alexander Graham Cairns-Smithan,

an organic chemist at the University of Glasgow in
Scotland.
 How life originated
Gene First Metabolism First

- Starts as RNA molecules and functions - Chemical cycles and networks of

as enzyme or clone itself chemical reactions form the early
metabolic systems
- Provide the environment for RNA to
becreated
How is consciousness formed?
Consciousness
(n) The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings

Consciousness is usually composed of

• Awareness
• Arousal – Regulated by brainstem
The Research from Harvard
Harvard scientists analyzed 36 patients with brain
lesions,
12 were in a coma, the rest were conscious.

10 out of 12 unconscious patients have damaged the

area called
“rostral dorsolateral pontine tegmentum”
Therefore, this area is linked with consciousness
 The Research from Harvard
The scientists trace the connections using
Connectome (brain map)

They found that 2 areas in the cortex work together

to regulate consciousness
● Anterior insula (AI)
● Pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC)
Connectome
What are senses?
Are they real?
What are senses?
Our senses are our connection to the outside world, Send messages to our brain,
which interprets the messages and perceives what is around us. Our brain use
information it gathers through our five of our senses.
Sight
- What we’re seeing is not objects, we see light waves reflected off the objects
- light waves then reach the retina in the back of our eyes cells called rods and
cones convert the waves into neural impulses that then travel to our brain
- Our brain then interpret the messages coming from our eyes. our perception
depends on associations between the viewed image and memories in our brain
Sound
- What we’re hearing is created by vibrations created by motion
- The waves travel through our ear to the cochlea where 16,000 hair (receptor cells) that send
the messages to the brain
- Same as sight, the brain then interprets the frequency of the vibrations compare it to our
memories, perceive the sound that we recognize
- our ear pick up a thousands of sound but somehow our brain selects only those most
relevant to the situation
Taste
- When we eat, the chemical substances are dissolve by our saliva, which stimulate our sense
of taste.
- Taste receptor then recognize the four sensations of taste: Sweet, Sour, Salty and Bitter.
- The information then send to the brain to interprets and recognize the taste as either
pleasant or unpleasant
- our mood can affect our sense of taste, this explain appetite changes and mood disorders
Smell
- Smell is important because in most strongly linked to our memory. For example, smelling
your favourite meal can trigger happy memory from childhood.
- it also connect to the sense of taste, if you cannot smell, food will taste bland. our brain use
signal from our five senses if one is missing, our brain can have difficulty recognize what
we’re eating
Touch
Our skin made up of millions of senses receptors, once stimulated by touch, it trigger nerve
impulses that communicate with the somatosensory cortex of the brain, give information about
temperature, pressure and pain give us the sensation of feeling
Is that’s all?
Other senses
Equilibrioception - sense of balanced Proprioception - Knowing where
part
of your body are without looking
Kinaesthesia - sense of movement Thermoception - sense of
temperature around you
Nociception - ability to feel pain Chronoception - sense the passing
time
Senses that human doesn’t have

- Electroception: feel magnetic fields around us

- Magnetoreception: feel magnetic fields and
use for navigation, Bats and some mammals
- Polarized light: many animal use light to tell
direction
Optical Illusion