# What differentiates a living cell from an irreversibly dead cell?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-differentiates-a-living-cell-from-an-irreversibly-dead-cell/753277>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 27, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-differentiates-a-living-cell-from-an-irreversibly-dead-cell/753277 "2016-04-27T20:27:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-differentiates-a-living-cell-from-an-irreversibly-dead-cell/753277/21 "2016-04-29T17:04:01Z")

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Signs that a cell might be dead:

It doesn’t accept dinner invitations.

It doesn’t reply to tweets.

You no longer see it waving from the front porch.

Its lawn is not mowed.

Its minivan gets repossessed.

Its eyes don’t sparkle like they used to.

The bartender notices it hasn’t been around lately.

The bird feeder is empty.

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