The features of being alive.

There are seven characteristics that define being alive. Living things are composed of cells. Living things use energy. Living things respond to their environment for survival. Living things grow. Living things reproduce. Living things adapt to their environment. From this, we can see that most things are distinguishable between two main categories, animate and inanimate objects. But regardless of these traits that group a majority of us here, there is a much more deeper set of traits that define us as who we are. We ourselves have developed various traits that make us different from one another. This is not enclosed only to humans or higher multicellular beings. Even single celled bacteria often develop mutations in their single strand of DNA that make them different from the rest. While it may be true that we often share traits with others, it can be assured that that is not a dependent variable, but rather how the trait is used or developed. Luckily, diversity allows for many individuals to chose how to use these traits and pass them on.

Sources:

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~klathrop/7characterisitcs_of_life.htm

http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Bacteria