Spyke
Are you technically dead if you hold in your breath?
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viridiannott avatar
@viridiannott

I am a biologist - no.

“Breathing” is a quick vital sign that can can be used on someone who is incapacitated. It can help guide what medical intervention is needed.

But physically breathing using your diaphragm muscles is not a requirement for something to be alive… your body is still using oxygen while you hold your breath, after all. Lots of animals don’t need to physically breathe at all, and there are tons of organisms other than animals that don’t even need oxygen to live.

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koooooooyel avatar
@koooooooyelreply

In that case. Do you consider a single cell to be "alive". Or is it just a bunch of molecules moving about in a very precise way without any sort of self awareness whatsoever.

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viridiannott avatar
@viridiannottreply

The definition of life is a little argued about, but all biologists do consider a single cell to be an example of “life”. Self-awareness and higher intelligence are not requirements.

The main rules that everyone agrees about are that a living thing

  1. Must be able to replicate using its own cellular machinery

  2. Must have a mechanism to uptake/consume energy from its environment

  3. Must react to changes in its environment in a strategic manner (so as to not die)

Single cells fit all of those criteria.

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viridiannott avatar
@viridiannottreply

I should clarify that living things must uptake Energy AND resources, such as nitrogen

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crazy_kat_lady avatar
@crazy_kat_ladyreply

Well, defining what constitutes life and what makes a human "dead" are two very different conversations.

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d00phy avatar
@d00phyreply

That’s what I was thinking. We are made up of cells, but if I remember high school bio class, our brain kind of keeps all of that stuff running. If it stops working, all those other systems, including the cells that make them up, eventually start shutting down/dying. Could be completely wrong though.

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