I don't think that they are. The term life, as it's currently defined, is not very useful. The reality is that there is a very colorful spectrum of microscopi

I don't think that they are. The term life, as it's currently defined, is not very useful. The reality is that there is a very colorful spectrum of microscopic biology and that a single bin of "alive" and "not alive" is like trying to paint the mona lisa with a single pixel. This scishow video gives a good look at the tip of the iceberg. https://youtu.be/FXqmzKwBB_w https://youtu.be/FXqmzKwBB_w