Do organic creatures have "half-lives?"

[Writer]

Is the basis of organic life the cell or the atom?

Is every breath of oxygen only furthering the chemical reaction that leads to further decay (aging?)

What are your thoughts? :popcorn:

[billyskank]

1. I know the answer to this question

"Is every breath of oxygen only furthering the chemical reaction that leads to further decay?"

is yes. Oxygen is a very destructive chemical. Our bodies have to work quite hard just to fix the damage oxygen does, but over time it wears everything organic down.

[Writer]

2. Okay, so why are we so focused on ourselves as biological beings...

and not as chemical beings?

:P

[Kutjara]

3. Biology is just chemistry with delusions of grandeur. n/t

[billyskank]

4. I seem to recall from chemistry class

that the subject is divided into inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry. Surely we are discussing nothing other than organic chemistry?

:hi:

[Writer]

5. Well - sure! I would say that the focus here in on organic chemistry.

Being that we are based on carbon and oxygen.

But still I think the basis of life is the atom and not the cell. Even if one were to explore the cell more deeply, one would discover the mitochondria, which processes energy for the cell. And what comprises that energy? Chemicals.

Another example is the discovery of the human genome, completed during the 1990's. And what governs our characteristics? The order of four separate chemicals: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine.

All of this "intellectualizing" is much, much too stimulating for me at the moment. I now need to keep studying my kiddie math.

~Writer~

[BarenakedLady]

6. I like pink!

:hi:

[billyskank]

7. I will just say that I disagree

but leave it at that. :)

[darkstar]

10. But we replinish the oxidized cells at varying rates

across our lives. This is why no half life for organics, right?

[Xipe Totec]

8. Schrödinger's cat does

Don't know about the rest.

[Kali]

9. not biology or chemistry - physics

ENERGY

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. Paint tastes funny.

:D

[Deja Q]

12. As long as they have a life...

:rofl: