Proporties+of+Life

All living organisms share these characteristics:

1. Order: All organisms exhibit complex organization. 2. Regulation: The environment outside an organism may change markedly, but regulatory mechanisms maintain an organism's internal enviroment within limits that sustain life. 3. Growth and Development: Each organism has a pattern of growth and development characteristic of it's species. 4. Energy Utilization: organisms take in energy and transform it to perform all of life's activities. 5. Response to the Environment: All organisms respond to environmental stimuli. 6. Reproduction: DNA lends itself to precise replication, and all organisms reproduce their own kind. 7. Evolution: Reproduction underlies the capacity of species to change over time.

(An easy way to remember these is by abbreviating: R.O.G.E.R. E. R.)

The one molecule that all living organisms contain which unifies all life is DNA.