I think life stops when metabolism stops.

Multi cell metabolism or metabolism on a single cell level?

Edited July 23, 201312 yr by benevolenthellion

Metabolism of all the cells in the organism. I don't think a strawberry is really alive to begin with. It's just the gynoecia of the plant that engorge with sugar and anthocyanins after fertilization. I guess it has cells that grow and metabolize but it is definitely not an organism. I actually wonder if the cells die at a certain time in fruit development. Probably not but I wonder how fruit develop anyway.

Here is actually a nice paper visualizing spread of necrosis during organismal death of C. elegans

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001613;jsessionid=4D4839531B36A2C822047D1B4B15EBC4