Life as a function of biological definitions Essay

Life as a function of biological definitions - Essay Example Perhaps one of the most complex questions that biology attempts to answer is not who are we and where have we come from;but rather the simplest of answers – what defines life?Depending on who is asked and what journals and/or texts are consulted,the researcher attempting to answer such a question will likely be led down a host of different paths. However, oftentimes the best way to define something that is infinitely complex is to draw a very broad definition that focuses on the key attributes and elements that are displayed while also drawing on the key attributes and elements that are noticeably missing. In this way, it is necessary to work to define life as well as to provide many of the prior and current definitions that scientists have used to attempt to determine what is living from what is not. One might question why such an absolute definition is such an integral facet of understanding biology; citing the fact that life is obvious to the observer when it is seen. Howev er, this is not always the case. Due to the recent advances that have been made in biology and genetics as they relate to the creation of â€Å"living† wetwear and other engineered forms of life, the observer finds it increasingly difficult to define with a high level of certainty what is life and what is not. Due to the fact that scientists are ever coming closer to engineering and â€Å"creating† more and more complex forms of â€Å"non natural/human engineered† life, the necessity for a clear and actionable comes into clear focus. Thus the purpose of this essay will be to weigh those competing definitions and draw inference based on their requisite strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, scientists have struggled over the years to uniformly define life based on its most common attributes. For instance, in 1944, physicist Erwin Schrodinger defined life as â€Å"that which avoids the decay into equilibrium†. Although this definition is at least partially va lid, there are non-life forms that ascribe to this same level of meaning. For instance, few biologists would argue that a forest fire is a life form. It grows, reproduces, and resists entropy. One could even argue that to a certain degree fire consumes energy to produce thermal heat as well as performs a type of respiration; all of these are verifiable attributes of life. However, fire is most certainly not a life form. However, even considering the shortcomings of this particular definition, there is the additional shortcoming that all life, regardless of its form, eventually seeks entropy as well. In this way, it is clear that although certain processes may avoid decay into equilibrium, it is unwise to call these processes a life form due to the fact that eventually all matter, energy, and life seeks entropy (Jagers op Akkerhuis 248). Similarly, many biologists have hearkened back to Darwin in order to determine what defines life. Those that ascribe to distinctly Darwinian school of thought define life as that which resists entropy and seeks to perpetuate a self-sustaining system cable of evolution. Although this definition is useful, it is similarly too broad to adequately narrow the focus of the researcher/student in understanding the complex nature of life. Likewise, many others conclude that metabolism is a requirement for something to be considered a life form. Regardless of the particular variety of life that is being analyzed, the common denotation of this is that all life requires a form of metabolic processes in order to synthesize, utilize, and extract useful energy for life. Similarly, this process invariably utilizes H20. As such, many biologists have appropriately theorized that all life requires H20 as a functional component of cellular growth, respiration, and division. Although this is merely supposition, the evolution of life on other planets may well utilize another more plentiful means of growth, division, and respiration than H20. Due to the fact that

Analysis of the Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Analysis of the Business Environment - Essay Example The daring steps in the formulation of the monetary policy have been taken in order to contain the deflation in the country. Despite the continuous efforts of the government the yield of the bonds issued by the government of Japan has remained more or less static and low. On the other hand the net public debt of the economy of Japan is as high as 134 % of the GDP. This is one of the highest levels of public debt out of the advanced economies of the world. In such a situation the Abenomics policies of 2013 to bring about a surge in the growth rate of the country and to bring about inflation in the country is considered to be having a lot of uncertainty and is dependent on the proper implementation of the strategies. This report is an analysis of the key measures under the policies, the main objectives as well as the long term implications of the policy. Scholarly resources have been consulted extensively in order to conduct the research and to draw appropriate inferences. Discussion B ackground of the Japanese economy In the post world war period Japan experienced spectacular growth of the economy. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the average rate of the economy had been 10%, 5% and 4% respectively. The country moved to being one of the advanced economies. However, Japan witnessed a burst in the assets bubble in the early 1990s. There was an economic slowdown which resulted in a high level of unemployment in the country. Adding to this there was a huge amount of deficit in the budget which occurred due to the ventures of the government to finance the projects related to public works in the country. However the stagnation in the economy could in no way be stimulated by the different infrastructure projects. In order to battle such an economic situation the Japanese government took policy measures that would take out the speculative part of the surplus liquidity from the stock markets as well as the real estate markets. These policies led the country into a phase of intensive deflation during the phase of 1990 to 2004 (Arslanalp and Lam, 2013, pp. 12-16). Due to the policies the economy recovered once again but the deflation still persisted. At the time of the financial crisis which had hit almost all the countries of the world, Japan experienced a loss in the level of GDP by 0.7% in the year 2008 and about 5.2% in the year 2009. On the other hand the growth rate of GDP of the country was negative in 2009. The volume of international trade in the country also suffered a decline of 27%. Key policies under Abenomics The policies under Abenomics comprise of mainly three strategies which are better known as the â€Å"three arrows† (Itoh, 2013, pp. 2-3). The three pillars are Bold monetary policy Flexibility in the Fiscal Policy Strategy to induce growth The Prime Minister intended to take a bold monetary policy through the introduction of quantitative easing as well as increasing the level of spending on the public expenditure along with the attempt to devalue yen. The Bank of Japan intended to undertake a strategy of Quantitative Easing through this policy. The bank would be buying assets from the open market worth $ 1.4 trillion so that the money