All living things share a set of characteristics: they are made of one or more cells, they use energy, they grow and develop, they respond to their surroundings and they reproduce. Nonliving things may show one or two of these, but never all of them. A dried bean looks like a pebble, yet it is a living seed resting until water arrives. This week the crew sets up the Windowsill, a kitchen life-science lab, and plants the seeds the whole course will measure.