The resurrection of life.

Abstract

The question of life was progressively put aside in the second half of the 20th century with the rise of molecular biology, but has recently re-emerged. Many scientists and philosophers consider that there is no place for this question within biology; that the distinction between living and non-living is arbitrary; and that progress in synthetic biology will finally put this question out of people's minds. I will argue that there is something wrong with the arguments supporting these statements. There are no reasons to exclude the question "What is life?" from biology. But the nature of the question has dramatically changed recently. Instead of being a search for the principles of life, the answer is now sought in the description of the historical process that has coupled the now well-established characteristics of organisms.