Why organisms reproduce?

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by questor

Google ''cellular reproduction''. If you still have a question, let me know. Questor

Why? So you can tell him to google another term?



Mohit - When taking your original question in context of abiogenesis (maybe google that one ), you will see that molecules existed prior to that which we call life. It was those molecules which replicated that increased in frequency. Those that did not replicate died, and hence, all of the life which remains on the planet now is a representation of previous life which successfully replicated or reproduced. Those that did not successfully reproduce stopped being represented in the population.

So... the behavior of producing offspring was selected for. Over years, those who had more surviving offspring represented a greater percentage of the population than those that did not have many (or any) surviving offspring.

As this process continued, those that were reinforced for reproducing did EVEN better than those that were not reinforced as much for reproducing. Considering this, the present day answer to your question is:

Because it feels really good (and that "goodness" feeling is the result of millennia of behavioral reinforcement itself supported by natural selection).



Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Right there! Oh... YEAH!!!!!

[questor]

Mohit, as I said, if you want SCIENTIFIC, CORRECT answers, Google the subject. That way ,you don't have to wade thru the .....

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by questor

Mohit, as I said, if you want SCIENTIFIC, CORRECT answers, Google the subject. That way ,you don't have to wade thru the .....

This has to be the funniest quote I've seen on Hypography in a long time. I can't believe you are seriously suggesting that googling a topic PREVENTS one from having to "wade thru the..." nonsense.

Concurrently, your statement implies that all google results are scientific and correct!


Hahahaha....

[questor]

Infy, how much of your time are you willing to waste on this continued
silliness? If you don't agree that Googling is better than relying upon people who have no depth on knowledge about a subject, then we disagree. We have already wasted a great deal of time on a subject that you disagree on.
Let us agree that we disagree and move on. A pissing contest does nobody any good.

[HydrogenBond]

Life reproduces because cells are designed to gain potential energy. When a critical energy level is reached, the potential energy is used to create another duplicate of itself. If an electron enters an atom, energy is given off and the state becomes stable or at lowest energy. But life is designed to go the other way, gaining potential energy as it accumulates fuel reserves. When it reaches a critical potential energy, sort of the top of an energy hill, it begins to slide down the other side resulting in two at the bottom of the energy valley. These then start their climb until they reach the top of a new energy hill, etc..

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by questor

If you don't agree that Googling is better than relying upon people who have no depth on knowledge about a subject, then we disagree.

This is a strawman and a misrepresentation of my point.

[questor]

H.B., you are correct that the energy produced by the Kreb Cycle provides the ATP for cell reproduction. Do you have any insight as to how/why this reaction was designed to occur? In other words, what initiates the need for this series of reactions to take place?

[freeztar]

Google Kreb cycle.

But seriously, you raise a good point about the "need for this series of reactions to take place". Let's look at the series of reactions first.



I suppose the need for this to take place could be explained, as suggested by InfiniteNow, as a product of abiogenesis (without life beginning, roughly translated).

Another explanation could envolve God, or perhaps Alien visitors with the intent of terraforming.

It's all so speculative.

[mynah]

Originally Posted by Mohit Pandey

Hello to all!
There is an interesting question in my textbook . It is obvious that we notice organisms because they reproduce. If there were to be only one, non reproducing organisms member of a particular kind, it is doubtful that we would have noticed its existence.
Let us ask a basic question-why do organism reproduce? After all, reproduction is not necessary to maintain the life of an individual organism, unlike the essential life processes as nutrition. On the other hand, if an individual organism is going to create more individuals, a lot of its energy will be spent in the process. So why should an organism waste energy on a process it does not need to stay alive?
Let us discuss the possible answers.

I take it what you want to know is why do organisms bother to reproduce, if it is not only metabolically expensive but also does nothing to extend the life of the organism?

Certainly a very interesting question, Mohit. My own take on it is that complex organisms arose from simple organisms, and those in turn arose from molecular structures at the very edge of life, because they happened to reproduce themselves. Reproduction was, therefore, not their goal as much as the cause of their existence at the beginning. Once established, the need to reproduce became a very powerful tool for survival.

[HydrogenBond]

One way to look at the energetics of life is to look at the hydrogen. If you look at H2, all by itself, without any other atoms present, the H is at its lowest possible energy state. This is reflected in solid hydrogen having the lowest melting point of any material in nature. In other words, the H in H2 is so stable there is almost no surface potential for attraction.

Although H2 is very stable by itself, the H2 is a high energy molecule with respect to oxygen. In this case, the potential for change is within the O and not in the H, since to become H2O, although the system energy is lower, the H now has a potential. In other words, the H2 doesn't interact but the H in H2O will interact strongly via hydrogen bonding. The H2 and O2 system energy is lowest as H20. The O's energy is also lowest as H2O. But hydrogen gains potential by becoming water, i.e., dipole charge.

That being said, when cells accumulates reduced food molecules,i.e., C-H, it is placing the H is a very low energy state relartive to H2, since both C and H have similar electro negativities. This low energy state for H is high energy with respect to O. The cell is designed to lower the potential of the H. But by lowering the H potential, the cell increases the O potential, until the system needs to discharge, driving the cell cycle.

At the lower end of hydrogen potential we have H2, which very few cells can make. The drag of the O, by going in the opposite direction makes this difficult. The cell sort of settles on low potential H using C-H, then N-H and then O-H. The latter, in turn, uses hydrogen bonding states. The H+ is the other end of the H spectrum having maximum potential.

An analogy of the cell are children in a playground. The lowest system energy will typically involve the biggest kids dominating play. The big kids are sort of O which be define the lowest system energy. The little kids (H) can't play easily with the aggressive big kids, dominating. The rest of inert nature is dominate by the big kids called oxygen, end of story. The cell is sort of like a teacher that comes to the playground to even the play allowing the small kids to participate in the games. But by doing this, the big kids are not allowed to play at full pace, so the little kids can better participate. But eventually, the teacher is called away (cell cycle) and the big kids take over again as the cell metabolizes very aggressively. But eventually the teacher returns (new cell) and helps the little kids so they can play.