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Some of our finest [ about ] Approved Articles Developed Articles (over 700) Article of the Week [ about ] (PD) Image: Ernst Haeckel Buzz of Life: One aspect of the interrelations among living entities. Researchers begin to understand the mechanisms governing the complex network interactions between plants and pollinators, such as hummingbirds, shown in this illustration from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904). The definition of life, the determination of the fundamental nature of living things, and the explanation of life's origin and evolution, have engendered much thought, debate and research throughout history. The perspective on life at any given moment in history, even today, qualifies as realistic and fruitful only to the extent of human knowledge at the time. In this article we focus defining the activity of living. We focus on what essential activities living entities perform that enable their living — specifically, we focus on the fundamental processes of living, those that constitute the system that counts as a living thing, the "common denominator that allows for the discrimination of the living from the non-living". [more...] New Draft of the Week [ about ] Sri Lanka, officially named the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island nation in South Asia, located 31 km off the south-east coast of India. It was known as Ceylon before 1972. It is sometimes called the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. PD Image Areas with major LTTE activity and control The language issue is at the root of a bitter civil war; official language is Sinhala, but Tamil theoretically has the status of a national language. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983, and tens of thousands have died in the ethnic conflict that continues to fester. After two decades of fighting, the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formalized a cease-fire in February 2002 with Norway brokering peace negotiations. Violence between the LTTE and government forces intensified in 2006 and the government regained control of the Eastern Province in 2007. In January 2008 the government canceled the cease fire and by March 2008 it launched a major military offensive against the ethnic Tamil insurgents, closing off the battleground to journalists and UN monitors as the peace negotiators left the country. Fear pervades Tamil neighborhoods, which the government raids at night. Few Tamils are willing to speak their minds, lest they be detained under stringent emergency laws. [more...]