Is a virus (biological) alive or inanimate because it seeks only to reproduce itself?

Question

I think an argument may be made either way: That a virus is a living thing and, equally, that it isn't. What do you think?

Answer 1

I can remember a biology lesson where we actually discussed that - there is really a debate on whether a virus is alive or not, and, as you said yourself, one can see it both ways.

I think they´re alive, as they obviously posses a "will to survive", and the "intelligence" to manipulate other organisms (their unwilling hosts) to "clone" them.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

You cannot use the fact that they do not have their own replication machinary as an arguement for viruses not being alive. I draw your attention to the Chlamydieae family - all are obligate intracellular parasites, unable to reproduce outside of a host cell.
Whether or not they are alive depends entirely on our definition of what is alive. Personally i just don't know for sure. They probably are.

Answer 4

>>>>genuinely my truck. as quickly as I first offered it I prayed that it would be a stable truck, and that first night I fell asleep and that i dreamed the hood of the truck replaced into up and there have been angels engaged on it. That replaced into 4 yrs in the past and somewhat some many miles in the past. It has taken many miles to circulate see a relatives member 544 miles around holiday. once or twice a month. The Lord is so stable. He knew i might ought to make all those journeys formerly I did.

Answer 5

virus is considerd to be a borderline betn both living and non-living organisms.it is non living when it floats in air and doesnot show body processes but as soon as it comes with a living thing it bcomes lkiving. therfore antibiotics have no effect on them as they use the synthesising machinery of the host cell

Answer 6

the vote is still out on that...

the reason is pretty simple... finding things like viruses and prions... made biologists rethink the classical definition of life... some want to braden it, some want to narrow it...and a few even want to include technical phenomena... KI, unexplained code behaviour... and things like that. as of yet, noone has come up with a new one that satisfies everybody... maybe there isnt one.

anyway... as long as the discourse goes on, the answer is pretty simple...

it depends on which definition of life you prefer. or which your teacher prefers... :))

Answer 7

Viruses are not considered living because they do not have the machinery to replicate by themselves.

Answer 8

Are plants alive? They don't do anything that isn't geared towards reproducing either.

Answer 9

there is actually some debate about this among biologists