Living Things and Non-lliving Things

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Living Things

We are surrounded by living and non-living things. All animals and plants are living things and biology is the study of these living things. A cat playing with a ball is obviously living. A pigeon flying from tree to tree is also a living thing.

Sometimes it is not so easy to decide. Plants are living things but they do not play with balls or fly. If something is living it will carry out all of the seven activities shown opposite.

Some non-living things show one or two of the seven characteristics of living things. Machines, such as washing machines, can move. The car needs to be fed with petrol in order to move.

Crystals, such as ice crystals forming on a window, grow bigger if the conditions are right. For something to be living it has to show all of the seven characteristics of living things.

Non-living things

Sand, wood and glass are all non-living things. None of them shows any of the characteristics listed above. Non-living things can be divided into two groups. First, come those which were never part of a living thing, such as stone and gold.

The second group are those which were once part of living things. Coal is a good example. It was formed when trees died and sank into the soft ground. This happened many millions of years ago when the Earth was covered with forests. Paper is non-living but it is also made from trees. Jam is also non-living but it was made from the fruit of a plant.

Differences between Living and Non-living Things

It is not always an easy thing to tell the difference between living, dead, and non-living things. Prior to the 1600's many people believed that nonliving things could spontaneously turn into living things. For example, it was believed that piles of straw could turn into mice. That is obviously not the case. There are some very general rules to follow when trying to decide if something is living, dead, or non-living. Listed here are the six rules used by scientists:

• Living things are made of cells.
• Living things obtain and use energy.
  
• Living things grow and develop.
  
• Living things reproduce.
  
• Living things respond to their environment.
  
• Living things adapt to their environment.

If something follows one or just a few of the rules listed above, it does not necessarily mean that it is living. To be considered alive, an object must exhibit all of the characteristics of living things. Sugar crystals growing on the bottom of a syrup container is a good example of a nonliving object that displays at least one criteria for living organisms.