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.