Are Viruses Alive

The biological significance of this article is due in part to the fact that viruses are being considered as partway-living things. Even though they are only halfway living, per se, they are still an important part of the study of living things because of the unique way in which they “live” and continue to reproduce by taking advantage of host cells. The information in this article relates to biologists in that viruses provide an entirely different element of potential life, as they are a cause for reconsideration when it comes to defining and determining life and non-life forms. This

It is often argued whether viruses are living or not. Those who don’t believe that viruses are living generally base their opinion off of the fact that they do not follow the basic definition of “life”. They do not carry out life-sustaining functions on their own like normal organisms. On the other side of the argument, some believe that viruses are in fact, living beings, which is where I rest my opinion.

There are many debates on whether viruses are living or nonliving cells. Viruses are organisms that infect living cells around its area. The characteristics of life describe a living cell and viruses only exemplify a few of those things such as adapting to their environment and containing a well-organized system. While viruses do portray some characteristics of life, they don’t reproduce, grow/develop, or display metabolism. Based on these viruses are not living.

Unlike bacteria, that have everything it needs to reproduce, viruses need to use a living cell's organelles in order to replicate.

After looking at many articles I believe that viruses are not alive. Even though in the beginning I believed they were. For an object to be alive it needs to have certain characteristics such as being able to: grow, develop, have a purpose, reproduce, adapt, and have cells. A living thing could reproduce which means they would make offspring. Viruses don't have the ability to grow and develop on their own. Viruses don’t have the ability to reproduce on their own without the help of a keeper

1. In the 19th century researchers realized that some diseases such as hand foot mouth and also rabies were caused by particles that acted like bacteria. Which means virus's are alive because the particles would need t be alive to still contaminate people.

Personally, I believe that there cannot be a present scientific answer, but a philosophical answer. First, there are a few things I would like to point out on which the author of the article is wrong. According to Science Line , viruses are considered to be non living. It says that, “Primarily, they lack the ability to reproduce without the aid of a host cell, and don't use the typical cell- division approach to replication.” That means that there is no present gray area, and the main consensus says that they are non living. In the article, it says that, “[Viruses] May be destroyed… viruses resemble seeds more than the do living cells.(103)” That entire statement is false. According to Dr. Mikhail Grinberg, viruses are, “Generally incurable, but

Viruses are in fact not alive. As the author in Are Viruses Alive states " They {viruses} have a certain potential, which can be snuffed out, but they do not attain the more autonomous state of life". Though they do have the 6 out of 7 characteristics I feel that they still do not qualify as a living organism because they carry on no independent metabolic or respiratory functions and cannot "live" until inserted into a host cell to begin their biological activities. Also they consist of a protein coat which contains either DNA or RNA. They are not made of cells. They have no cellular structures. They do not obtain homeostasis or evolve. Finally the genetic material of a viruses has to combine with a living cell to reproduce its like having

Biologist have generally agreed that being able to reproduce, react to external stimuli, produce metabolism, adapt and is made of up 1 or more cells are the characteristics of a living organism. Viruses are alive, because they accomplish tasks that non-living things can’t. As well as they share many qualities with living organisms, even making their own category of life.

Kevin, althought you made good points I think you are making this more confusing than it is. I'm not talking about what a object contains, but what is made up of and live in. For example, we live in air and their is air in our body, not like a fish in a fish tank. That is why I dissigree with you and I think that viruses are alive.

believe that viruses are not alive because they do not have a cell structure which then

Viruses are a nuisance for organisms alike yet a rather fascinating part of biology, they can be contracted just by every way possible while possess the ability to kill both plants and animals and in the mild yet common scenario of the annual flus for us humans that literally gives us headaches among other symptoms. One particularly interesting virus is the Varicella Zoster Virus, or VZV. It’s a different version of the virus that can cause herpes with a slightly altered genetic sequence which causes the disease of Chickenpox, what makes it different from its counterpart is that it’s not as serious but what they’re similar in is they both have the characteristics of staying with us for the rest of our lives once we contracted them. This capability comes down to the genetic coding, the programing that allows the VZV virus to stay in us and reactivate in the distant future.

Bacteria: Bacteria can be spread everywhere because it is everywhere and it doesn't need a host. Bacteria can spread so easily that it could be the cause of a zombie apocalypse.

Viruses are microscopic organisms that are able to reproduce themselves using a host call. Viruses play the role of a parasite or an uninvited guest in an organism. Epidemics occurs when a disease spreads through many people; ex: THe Great Influence Epidemics of 1918.Pandemics its is a global outbreak of a disease; ex: HIV/AIDS. Viruses are similar to cells they have genetic material and reproduce just like cells.Viruses are different from cells because they are not made of cells and cannot metabolize nutrients.

Viruses are described as the middle ground between what is considered living and non-living. Without a means of replicating within themselves they use the living cells of other organisms to do so. Viruses are essentially genes consisting of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protective coating of protein called a capsid and some viruses are surrounded by a bubble of lipid called an envelope. I believe that although not considered fully living or dead viruses are a crucial part of the biological research of life and have many ties to what is considered living and should not be put aside when researching this topic, and this essay seeks to show this by looking further into the scientific definition of life, the roles of viruses……………………………………………