Meera grinds a piece of potato and filters out the enzyme catalase.
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
Meera grinds a piece of potato and filters out the enzyme catalase. She adds it to hydrogen peroxide in a test tube, and bubbles of oxygen appear. Her friend says: "The test tube is alive now." Is he right? Is the reaction living or non-living?
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
Metabolism is the sum of all the chemical reactions in a body. Every living organism shows it, and no non-living object does, so it is a defining feature. A reaction done outside a cell, in a test tube, is a living reaction, but the test tube is not a living thing.
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. The reaction. It is the same reaction that goes on in the potato's cells. So it is a living reaction.
Step 2. The test tube. It holds one reaction only. It has no cells, no metabolism as a whole, and no response.
Step 3. What a living thing is. A living organism is a whole body of cells, with thousands of reactions working together.
Answer: he is wrong. The reaction is a living reaction, but the test tube is not a living organism.
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