The unity and diversity of organisms become apparent even at the cellular level. - Albert L. Lehninger

Organisms possess extraordinary attributes, properties that distinguish them from other collections of matter. What are these distinguishing features of living organisms?

In thermodynamic terms, formation of the solution occurs with a fa vorable free-energy change: ΔG = ΔH - TΔS, where ΔH has a small positive value and TΔS a large positive value; thus ΔG is negative.

Among the seminal discoveries in biology in the twentieth century were the chemical nature and the three-dimensional structure of the genetic material, deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA.