Most scientists differentiate living matter from non-living and would insist that the molecules and other tiny particles are non-living. That makes as much sense as to say that if you take a bag of Legos and shake it for a billion years, eventually they'll fall into some functional shape of a living creature, which will jump out of the bag and bite off your arm. How can non-living pieces come together in a way to form a living creature! People build very sophisticated machines, computers and robots, but no matter how lifelike their actions appear, they are not considered alive. Or are they? Where did life really begin? And why is it, that it formed all over the place spontaneously, and yet, no matter how hard the scientists try, they can not build a living being from wires, cables and pc boards?
Life seems to start somewhere on the molecular or even quantum level. That's why working with anything larger hasn't produced a living creature. Left alone, atoms of helium formed hydrogen, which formed molecules of water, carbon, and all that stuff necessary to make life. They organized themselves into amino acids, and then into larger and more complex creatures like us. There was a finite number of the hydrogen atoms, and everything we see around came from them. We ourselves, and our tables and chairs are all made of exactly the same stuff. Except we don't think of our furniture as alive, but, I suspect it is, on a sub-atomic level.
Here is an interesting video of an experiment with the tiny metal particles that could be supporting my direction of thinking:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/snakes/
In the experiment tiny metal bits seemingly come alive. Please watch the videos! (Be patient, for there is an IBM commercial first, just ignore it; the videos are well worth the wait!)
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