Death
hideDeath is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby. The true nature of the latter has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry. Many religions maintain faith in either some kind of afterlife or reincarnation. The effect of physical death on any possible mind or soul remains for many an open question.
Animals almost without exception (see hydra) die in due course from senescence. Intervening phenomena which commonly bring death earlier include malnutrition, predation, disease, accidents resulting in terminal physical injury, or, in extreme circumstances, grave ecosystem disruption. Intentional human activity causing death includes suicide, homicide, and war. Roughly 150,000 people die each day across the globe. Death in the natural world can also occur as an indirect result of human activity: an increasing cause of species depletion in recent times has been destruction of ecological systems as a consequence of the widening spread of industrial technology.
Death in this context is now seen as less an event than a process: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs. In general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. Precise medical definition of death, in other words, becomes more problematic, paradoxically, as scientific knowledge and technology advance.
For more information about Death, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with death
Nanoparticles used in common household items caused genetic damage in mice
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Nov 16, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (24) |
11
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics to sunscreen to paint to vitamins, caused systemic genetic damage in mice, according to a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson ...
New understanding about mechanism for cell death after stroke leads to possible therapy
Nov 22, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Scientists at the Brain Research Centre, a partnership of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, have uncovered new information about the mechanism by which ...
Researchers identify proteins in lung cancer cells that may provide potential drug targets
Nov 25, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Boston University Biomedical Engineering Department have identified a number of proteins whose activation allows them to distinguish between cancer and ...
Newly Discovered Fat Molecule: An Undersea Killer with an Upside
Nov 05, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole ...
Research: Baby's sleep position is major factor in 'flat-headedness'
Nov 19, 2009 |
2 / 5 (1) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A baby's sleep position is the best predictor of a misshapen skull condition known as deformational plagiocephaly ? or the development of flat spots on an infant's head -- according to findings reported by ...
Now hear this: Mouse study sheds light on hearing loss in older adults
Nov 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Becoming "hard of hearing" is a standard but unfortunate part of aging: A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over 65 in the United States, and will afflict an estimated ...
Researchers link health-care debate to risk of dying in US and Europe
Nov 06, 2009 |
4 / 5 (6) |
2
The current health care debate in the United States is complicated. Trade-offs between heath care expenditures, lifestyle choices and life expectancy have been suggested but seldom clearly demonstrated. The U.S. spends on ...
Young athletes need dual screening tests for heart defects, study suggests
Nov 15, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
To best detect early signs of life-threatening heart defects in young athletes, screening programs should include both popular diagnostic tests, not just one of them, according to new research from heart experts at Johns ...
Medication improves health of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension
Nov 17, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
In one of the few studies of the long-term effects of medication in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) disease, a team of researchers found the health and exercise capacity of PAH patients improved after ...
Postmortem genetic tests after sudden death may provide less expensive way to identify risk
Nov 15, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Targeted postmortem testing to identify genetic mutations associated with sudden unexplained death (SUD) is an effective and less expensive way to determine risk to relatives than comprehensive cardiac testing of first degree ...
How cells tolerate DNA damage -- start signal for cell survival program identified
Nov 16, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Cancer researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have gained new insights into how cells react to DNA damage. Dr. Michael Stilmann, Dr. Michael Hinz and Professor Claus Scheidereit ...
Side effects not always due to swine flu shot
Oct 31, 2009 |
not rated yet |
1
(AP) -- Hundreds of people on any given day will die, develop the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome or have spontaneous abortions, and that doesn't necessarily mean that their swine flu vaccination shot was to blame, a ...
Swine flu deaths jump by 700 in a week: WHO
Oct 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
The number of swine flu deaths jumped by 700 in a week, reaching more than 5,700 worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data indicated Friday.
The first casualty of war: Study finds news reports match misperception of civilian deaths
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
2
Researchers reporting in BioMed Central's open access journal Conflict and Health found that the discrepancy in media reporting of casualty numbers in the Iraq conflict can potentially misinform the public and contribute to dis ...
