A living system has three important attributes­-matter, energy and genetic information. We can conceive of a living cell as a self-as-­sembling, self-adjusting, self-regulating and self-­perpetuating isothermal open system that ex­changes both matter and energy with the environ­ment. Since the living system is open, it maintains its organization in a steady state. The steady state condition of the living state is far from the posi­tion of equilibrium.

It is so, because myriad of proc­esses and activities are in operation at different levels of organization. Whereas at equilibrium the system has the lowest possible free energy and the highest disorderliness.

The biochemical mechanism of origin of life (Oparin-1923, Halden- 1928) called proto-­biogenesis (Fox and Dose, 1972) envisages that the basis of life is nothing but a cocktail of chemicals. The transformation of matter in non-living state (gases, solids and liquids) into living state (proto­plasm) might have been a chance event and a con­sequence of interaction between matter and en­ergy. We now know that both living and non-living things are made up of same kind of chemical ele­ments and obey the same physical and chemical laws of nature.