I think the entire premise is flawed, science only accepts life to be that which is similar to what it already knows or has experienced. What if, there is life that we can't see because it's body doesn't react to light the way we expect it to? Life is definitely universal, how ever man-kind's understanding of it (life) is limited by it's inability to accept anything that exists outside of the accepted paradigms revolving any given subject. In this particular case, Life.