Why is there a need to develop the theme "alive"?
Among the many definitions of life Wikipedia gives is: "This is the active form of existence of matter, in a sense, highest compared to physical and chemical the forms of existence." Key to the definition here - is phrase "in some sense." As you can see, there is no content, but there is a sense, to the same 'some'. Ibid read: "life outside the cell does not exist." It is clear that the authors did not possess information by theme, including the life of one of the forms of protein - prion.
Surprising but all available definitions “alive” does not use the classical principles of formation of meaningful definitions. The rewriting in a circle from each other the meaningless eclectic constructions - it has become the norm today. While outside the circle remain G. Leibniz, and especially J.A. Poincare, which proposed the ideal models of the definitions.
Lexical articles from other encyclopedias relating of definition of life this are the same fantasies of senses, differing from each other only in terms of volume.