Are viruses irritable?

Question

Irritable as in "capable of responding to a stimuli."

I was confused by these two statements given in a book about viruses-

1- "They lack irritability."
2- "They show irritability and respond to environmental conditions such as heat, UV rays, humidity, drought, alcohol etc."

Can the meaning of the word "irritability" be contextually different in the above cases?

Or Is the book just plain stupid? ;)

Answer 1

Irritability is probably a poor term.

Viruses do respond to enviornmental conditions just as any other organism would because it can cause mutations in their DNA or RNA. Some viruses mutate much more easily than others, so in that sense I suppose they would show more or less "irritability".

Answer 2

no viruses are actually between living& non living as they reproduce but also can be crystallize like non living things.so they also show irritability to heat uv rays..........
but still you cant say irritability like other living things.

Answer 3

viruses do not respond to stimuli