Abstract
Death is a highly personal matter that paradoxically concerns everyone. Although the concept of death transcends disciplinary cleavages, and despite an abundance of literature, its very nature is hard to pin down. This text mainly explores the biological side of the issue, through the study of apoptosis (a cell biology concept), by taking into account certain evolutionary aspects (from the perspective of evolution biology) and philosophical arguments (metabiology). Our thinking aims to thwart the codes of opposition between the concepts of living and dead, preferring to consider death as a part of Life. Last, our article proposes the ‘Black Light’ metaphor to capture a general operation of the mind that consists in seeking, through mirroring or antonymy, the positive (creative) correlates of negation, opposition and destruction.