Life's Definition

     As I continue my intellectual studies, currently I am reading a General Biology textbook's human anatomy and physiology section, as well as Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.  Tonight, while reading Peikoff's chapter on "Man", it reminded me that I constructed a "Life" definition years ago. I propose the following:

Life is cell respiration that nurtures self-maintenance in it's direction.

Paul Wharton
Father of Metachemics