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Some of our finest Citable Articles (158) Developed Articles (1,161) (17,125 total articles) Words constitute the ultimate texture and stuff of our moral being, since they are the most refined and delicate and detailed, as well as the most universally used and understood, of the symbolisms whereby we express ourselves into existence. — Iris Murdoch        —add a quotation about knowledge or writing •Did You Know? Featured Article: Life Bear with me, 0 mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train. — Wislawa Szymborska, from her poem, "Under One Small Star" (PD) Image: Ernst Haeckel Buzz of Life: One aspect of the interrelations among living entities. Researchers begin to understand the mechanisms governing the complex network interactions between plants and pollinators, such as hummingbirds, shown in this illustration from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904). Throughout history, we humans devoted much thought, speculation, debate, and research in an attempt to explain the fundamental nature of living systems and to explain their origin and biodiversity — in short, in an attempt to define life. The typical form of the question asked: "What Is Life?" At any given time in history, the prevailing answers to that perennial question depended on the prevailing extent of human knowledge, and to the cultural interpretations given that knowledge, including those arising from belief systems based on myth and religion-inspired faith. At this writing, in mid-second decade of the 21st century, that still remains the case. Footnotes