Definition of life

[Paul Schlosser]

In <Pine.3.87.9402101041.B4865-0100000 at talbot>
ray at talbot.epidem.uwa.edu.au (Raymond Kan) writes:

>Life: a phenomenon of matter and energy sustained by the self-replicating 
>and coding properties of nucleic acids.
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Why must it be by nucleic acids?  What about hypothetical life from another
planet that uses something else?

-Paul
schlosser at beta.ciit.org