microlife

English

Etymology

From micro- +‎ life.

Noun

microlife (countable and uncountable, plural microlives)

  1. (uncountable) Microorganisms collectively.
  2. (countable) A unit of risk representing half an hour change of life expectancy.
    Coordinate term: micromort
    • 2012 February 16, David Spiegelhalter, “Microlives: A lesson in risk taking”, in BBC Future‎[1]:
      If you have unhealthy habits, it costs you microlives. If you smoke, each cigarette reduces your life expectancy on average by around 15 minutes, so two cigarettes loses you a microlife. […] And for every extra 5kg you are overweight, it will cost you around one microlife a day. […] If you survive your trip on the motorbike, then your micromort gets forgotten and you start the next day with a clean slate. But if you smoke and drink all day, and live on a fast-food diet, then your microlives will accumulate from day to day.

Further reading

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