Is It Alive or Dead?

The requirements for life are tied up in the structure. And if the structural integrity is intact, and by that i mean the ability metabolize under appropriate conditions, then it's alive. A hibernator metabolizes actively. Is slow, buta,. i had a friend when i was a graduate student who studied hybernation and a ground squirrels from the sierra nevada. He would keep them in the calld room for aa many months. And occasionally he would tob take out a heart and mu the hart mitocondria. That's one of the things he was intreted atd what happens to the mity contr It was a most amazing thing