LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.

It has been applied not only to organisms and their microbiomes, but also to parasites that can't survive outside their hosts, to colonial organisms like corals, and even to entire ecosystems. DEFINING LIFE From the tallest tree to the tiniest bacterium, all living things share some common ground. Over the past three decades, discoveries of (comparatively) giant viruses, the size of some bacteria and containing DNA and more complex structures than the simple "bad news wrapped in protein" model, have made the distinction between viruses and living things even blurrier. What's more, when the genes to create this protein are put into another organism like a yeast or bacteria, that organism takes on the tardigrade's drying-resistant superpowers. [Extracted from the article]