APA
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Colón-Santos, S., Vázquez-Salazar, A., Adams, A., Campillo-Balderas, J. A., Hernández-Morales, R., Jácome, R., … Trubl, G. (2024). Chapter 2: What Is Life? Astrobiology.
Chicago/Turabian
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Colón-Santos, Stephanie, A. Vázquez-Salazar, Alyssa Adams, J. A. Campillo-Balderas, Ricardo Hernández-Morales, Rodrigo Jácome, I. Muñoz-Velasco, et al. “Chapter 2: What Is Life?” Astrobiology (2024).
MLA
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Colón-Santos, Stephanie, et al. “Chapter 2: What Is Life?” Astrobiology, 2024.
BibTeX Click to copy
@article{stephanie2024a,
title = {Chapter 2: What Is Life?},
year = {2024},
journal = {Astrobiology},
author = {Colón-Santos, Stephanie and Vázquez-Salazar, A. and Adams, Alyssa and Campillo-Balderas, J. A. and Hernández-Morales, Ricardo and Jácome, Rodrigo and Muñoz-Velasco, I. and Rodriguez, Laura E and Schaible, Micah J and Schaible, George A. and Szeinbaum, Nadia and Thweatt, Jennifer L and Trubl, G.}
}
The question "What is life?" has existed since the beginning of recorded history. However, the scientific and philosophical contexts of this question have changed and been refined as advancements in technology have revealed both fine details and broad connections in the network of life on Earth. Understanding the framework of the question "What is life?" is central to formulating other questions such as "Where else could life be?" and "How do we search for life elsewhere?" While many of these questions are addressed throughout the Astrobiology Primer 3.0, this chapter gives historical context for defining life, highlights conceptual characteristics shared by all life on Earth as well as key features used to describe it, discusses why it matters for astrobiology, and explores both challenges and opportunities for finding an informative operational definition.