A crystal of sugar can break into many pieces and grow in size if kept in saturated solution. Is crystal a living thing? Justify your answer

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Solution

Crystals are certainly not living beings. When we define what’s a living entity, there are many characteristics that we associate with. Crystals follow only one of these characteristics, i.e. they grow. Their growth is propelled by self assembly of molecules, but self assembly alone does not make them “living” matter. Crystals do not have many other characteristics associated with living beings, e.g. they cannot metabolize. We therefore cannot call crystals as living beings.

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