Individual Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! Switch editorYou have switched to source editingCloseYou can switch back to visual editing at any time by clicking on this icon.Visual editingSource editingMorePreviewAdvancedSpecial charactersHelpHeadingLevel 2Level 3Level 4Level 5FormatInsertLatinLatin extendedIPASymbolsGreekGreek extendedCyrillicArabicArabic extendedHebrewBanglaTamilTeluguSinhalaDevanagariGujaratiThaiLaoKhmerCanadian AboriginalRunesÁáÀàÂâÄäÃãǍǎĀāĂ㥹ÅåĆćĈĉÇçČčĊċĐđĎďÉéÈèÊêËëĚěĒēĔĕĖėĘęĜĝĢģĞğĠġĤĥĦħÍíÌìÎîÏïĨĩǏǐĪīĬĭİıĮįĴĵĶķĹĺĻļĽľŁłŃńÑñŅņŇňÓóÒòÔôÖöÕõǑǒŌōŎŏǪǫŐőŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšȘșȚțŤťÚúÙùÛûÜüŨũŮůǓǔŪūǖǘǚǜŬŭŲųŰűŴŵÝýŶŷŸÿȲȳŹźŽžŻżÆæǢǣØøŒœßÐðÞþƏəFormattingLinksHeadingsListsFilesDiscussionReferencesDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getItalic''Italic text''Italic textBold'''Bold text'''Bold textBold & italic'''''Bold & italic text'''''Bold & italic textDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getReferencePage text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>Page text.[1]Named referencePage text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>Page text.[2]Additional use of the same referencePage text.<ref name="test" />Page text.[2]Display references<references />↑ Link text, additional text.↑ Link text==Biology<!--Linked from 'Extraterrestrial life'-->== In [[biology]], the question of the individual is related to the definition of an [[organism]], which is an important question in biology and [[philosophy of biology]], despite there having been little work devoted explicitly to this question.<ref name=Wilson>{{Cite journal | last = Wilson | first = R | title = The biological notion of individual | journal = Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | year = 2007|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/biology-individual/}}</ref> An individual organism is not the only kind of individual that is considered as a "unit of [[Selection (biology)|selection]]".<ref name=Wilson/> [[Gene]]s, [[genome]]s, or groups may function as individual units.<ref name=Wilson/> [[Asexual reproduction]] occurs in some colonial organisms so that the individuals are genetically identical. Such a colony is called a [[genet (biology)|genet]], and an individual in such a population is referred to as a ramet. The colony, rather than the individual, functions as a unit of selection. In other colonial organisms the individuals may be closely related to one another but differ as a result of [[sexual reproduction]]. One of the most accepted hypotheses is the definition of an organism that emerged from Piast's ladder of lifeness. According to this idea, life can be described as a phenomenon (continuum of self-maintainable information) and its individual [[organism]] can be described as a distinct element of this [[Continuum mechanics|continuum]]. The ability to define entity boundaries is a key trait of distinctness, which can be achieved either through physical means, such as maintaining an open system through a cell, or through informational means, such as maintaining transmission to another host as seen in parasitic entities like [[Virus|viruses]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Piast |first=Radosław W. |date=2019-06-07 |title=Shannon's information, Bernal's biopoiesis and Bernoulli distribution as pillars for building a definition of life |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519319301109 |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |language=en |volume=470 |pages=101–107 |doi=10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.03.009 |pmid=30876803 |issn=0022-5193}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page