There is still a great deal to learn about life, including how to define it. But the many sciences associated with biology are gradually uncovering the secrets of life, the most complex phenomenon known. Here are some basics.

Life: Synthetic Life

Partly in order to understand its amazing complexity, and partly in order to advance medical therapies. So, how do you create a viable cell?

Life: States of Animacy

Hibernation, dormancy, suspended animation, revival from apparent death; the line between life and death...

Life: Defining Life

The fine line between animate and inanimate, and between quasi-life and life. ....

Life: Quasi-Life

Viruses, prions, bacteriophages ... all behave like living organisms but are not quite alive...

Life: Origins of Life

The necessary ingredients and conditions; formation of life's molecules; Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) ....

Life: Evolution and Extinction

The long reign of bacteria, the eventual branching and diversification, symbiogenesis, the dramatic mass extinctions and resurgence of life...

Life: Life beyond Earth

The basic chemical elements of life on Earth are the most abundant elements in the universe...Are the conditions right elsewhere?

Life: Extreme Forms of Life

The discovery of organisms thriving in extreme temperatures and conditions deep undersea, deep in the Earth, deep in the ice suggests that life, once it emerges, is extraordinarily resilient..