Characteristics of Life

Life is difficult to define, but there are characteristics of life that can be explored! Join the Amoeba Sisters as they explore several characteristics of life. Click "show more" to expand video details to see table of contents & additional information. 👇

We chose not to give a numerical value for how many characteristics of life there are, because we do not want to imply that what we are listing must be a specific order, or that it cannot be expanded upon or include exceptions. Additionally, characteristics can also certainly be titled differently. Our goal is to promote thought and discussion about what it means for an organism to be alive as well as provide characteristics of life that can be explored when trying to study living things.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
Intro 00:00
Organization (all life is composed of 1 or more cells) 2:20
Homeostasis 2:54
Metabolism (including need to obtain+use energy) 3:35
Reproduction 4:22
Growth and Development 4:46
Response to Stimuli 5:10
Evolution (occurs in populations, can lead to adaptation) 5:58

While living organisms tend to have ALL of the above characteristics, there are exceptions (such as the 'zonkey' mentioned in video at 6:55).

*Quote Citation:

[Added 7/12/2018: NASA also uses this quote as a working definition of life. You can learn more here:

Reference:
You will notice that this source includes some additional life characteristics beyond our video to consider as well.

Recommended for Further Reading (and thought provoking!):

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The Amoeba Sisters videos demystify science with humor and relevance. The videos center on Pinky's certification and experience in teaching biology at the high school level. For more information about The Amoeba Sisters, visit:

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TRANSLATIONS:
Hindi Subtitles Credit: Alisha Aggarwal

[crunchx]

I'm guessing 90% of people here are here because school (Cause that's why I'm here)

[saint_]

The teacher got me up here watching this

[ambassadorgrackle]

bro I hope my recommendations don't get messed up because of this, I gotta watch this for school

[BenRanger]

2:20 organization
2:55 homeostasis
3:35 metabolism
4:22 reproduction
4:45 growth and development
5:10 response to stimuli
6:00 evolution

[kristennnnn]

whelp... i have a bio final tomorrow... and im going on an amoeba sisters marathon

[ryanwolff]

who else has there teacher tell them to do worksheets dealing with amoeba sisters? ;)

[amytian]

Bathtub pony trying its best, but getting lowkey bullied XD

[ripreina]

watched this six times and i still dont even know what just happened

[creepyponytaylor]

I love these videos mainly because in school the teachers explain this for hours and it's boring and hard to remember but I like how it gets straight to the point of what each thing means and does in a short period of time. These videos are helping me with college and I love that there are pictures; I am a visual learner and everything in these videos helped so much.

[water_]

POV: Ur teacher assigned this video to you for school

[opie]

if you need to write 3 things you learned from this video here they are!


1: it is impossible to count all the chararistics of life because it keeps changing

2: that there are unicellular creatures (dont mind how i didnt know that i swear im not a sweaty 2nd grader)

3: when you put a cactus next to a window it rotates 0_0

[keshikitsama]

POV: you forgot to study and you're doing an Amoeba Sisters binge at 2am

[spongebat]

my biology teacher made me watch this, then said it was missing after i turned it in, k

[fizzypopex]

Even When Science was good, You Made it a million times better!Thank you Amoeba Sisters!!!

[lanaphinebrown]

What is Life?
What am i even doing with my life?
Am i even alive?
Me: gosh such serious questions...(seriously depressed for the rest of the dayT0T)

[stevenmcdonald]

You just couldn’t forget about that pony huh. I feel you😭

[justicek.foster]

I'm 24, I'm back to better understand life now. Don't down talk your teachers because you really will need this information later in life. Especially to help you understand yourself and the world around you. May Allah make it easy for us Ameen

[bonniebaker]

She is wayyyy better than my teacher I finally get this who agrees 😂

[joselyntoledo]

Poor bathtub pony, he just wanted to be a real pony😭

[izzy]

My teacher used this video and I’m using it for my homework lmao