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Tiny microbe challenges the definition of cellular life

Tiny microbe challenges the definition of cellular life

5 comments

·August 19, 2025
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wagwang

I've always felt like the biological definition of life isn't useful or meaningful when it comes to borderline replicators like viruses.

BobbyTables2

My biology is a bit rusty but I really have to wonder — are plants and animal cells even “alive”?

Take away the mitochondria and bacteria… can cells live on their own?

If no, then are we that all that different than this microbe?

Might even be sheer arrogance to think that we are the “host” (much like cats/dogs domesticating humans). Maybe we only exist to serve the mitochondria (:->

hydrogen7800

I think I first came across this on HN: A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals [0]

[0]https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/668166

chasil

When you say "take away the mitochondria," do you mean a prokaryote?

tomrod

Multicellular life is difficult without mitochondria. Personally I think that is the great filter.