Ferris Jabr, writing an op-ed for the New York Times:
Why is it so difficult for scientists to cleanly separate the living and nonliving and make a final decision about ambiguously animate viruses? Because they have been trying to define something that never existed in the first place. Here is my conclusion: Life is a concept, not a reality.
It’s a thought provoking argument, and controversial, judging by this Twitter thread and others. Well worth a read.