Fun Stuff > CHATTER
The Terrifying Future Threat of Nuclear Waste According to the Government
Ozymandias:
Dudes of course planets can be alive.
StaedlerMars:
Not only that, but this whole discussion is void because as of tomorrow we'll all be infected with the swine flu anyway.
Joseph:
maybe the swine flu is Mother Earth's immune system and we are cancer
:-o :-o :-o
Radical AC:
Reproduction is not a necessity in all models for the definition of life. This stems more from mixed species that can't reproduce and less from a liberal interpretation of what it means to be alive. (i.e. a liger)
I've never heard the argument that fungus isn't considered alive. It sounds like a crock to me, and I don't see how the argument could begin to be made. Ascomycota and basidiomycota both have full sexual reproduction cycles and are multicellular. Zygomycota and chytridiomycota yeasts are still haplontic. Fungi are the genetically closest kingdom to animals there is. To argue against them being classified as alive you would also have to reclassify the domains prokaryotes and archaebacteria, as well as a good number of protists.
If there is actual dissent among the scientific community I'd love to read about it.
Ozymandias:
There is dissent on specific types of fungus as to whether or not to classify a colony as multiple organisms or just one big one, but that's not even close to arguing if it's alive or no.
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