Defining Life: Living vs Nonliving — NEET Biology
📚 Practice ConceptHow wonderful is the living world! The wide range of living types is amazing. The extraordinary habitats in which we find living organisms, be it cold mountains, deciduous forests, oceans, fresh water lakes, deserts or hot springs, leave us speechless. The beauty of a galloping horse, of the migrating birds, the valley of flowers or the attacking shark evokes awe and a deep sense of wonder. The ecological conflict and cooperation among members of a population and among populations of a community or even the molecular traffic inside a cell make us deeply reflect on – what indeed is life? This question has two implicit questions within it. The first is a technical one and seeks answer to what living is as opposed to the non-living, and the second is a philosophical one, and seeks answer to what the purpose of life is. As scientists, we shall not attempt answering the second question. We will try to reflect on – what is living?
Which scenario best demonstrates the philosophical question of ‘What is life?’ at the most basic level intersecting with taxonomy?
View solution & NCERT explanation
Correct answer: D — Identifying molecular traffic in cells to distinguish living from non-living
The line between living and non-living (e.g., molecular activity) represents the philosophical aspect mentioned in the chapter. NCERT mentions how if movement is to be considered as a sign of life then if molecular traffic within cells are a sign of life.
What does NCERT say about How wonderful living world?
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Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.