Are Viruses Alive?

[dnamolecule]

Just thought about this interesting question.

Are viruses alive?

they do replicate although do not eat/metabolize/grow...

[danfive]

No!!!

[danfive]

Think of them as infectious agents (non-living) not independent organisms (alive).

[aftabac]

well, its a long discussion that whether these are live or not live. but first we have to define what are live and what are not live.
one of biological definition is the thing that has the genetic material and can replicate is considerd live, so by this definition these are said to be live.
but another definition is give that the thing that have the genetic material but can also replicate itself is live, in this definition they can be considerd as semilive.
so i think for viruses by bioloigical definitions we must consider them semi-live.

[aftabac]

if we considerd the things more deeply then everything that has the mass and can move is live.i.e. the things that have the mass (body) and a force ( to move or rotate) are live. if one of these is absent the there is no life. at human level when the man is dead then it has the body but dont have a force to move the body so we consider that dead. so life is the union of force and mass, when both of these work togeather it is said to be life otherwise not.
if we take this definition of life then life is even there in atom because each atom has the mass and force to move. there is mass in atom and there is motion in atom. so if the fundamental unit of each thing has live then all the things on the universe has live. there is nothing dead on earth. but there is different level of life. in which there is more organization of things has more superior live and in which there is radom organization of atom has less superior life and as there Human has the most perfect organization of atom in the body so by this definition they are most superior organism on the face of earth.
i would like if someone add some comments...........as they open new ways of thinking and looking the objects.
regards
aftab

[danfive]

Originally Posted by aftabac

well, its a long discussion that whether these are live or not live. but first we have to define what are live and what are not live.
one of biological definition is the thing that has the genetic material and can replicate is considerd live, so by this definition these are said to be live.
but another definition is give that the thing that have the genetic material but can also replicate itself is live, in this definition they can be considerd as semilive.
so i think for viruses by bioloigical definitions we must consider them semi-live.

I totally disagree with the term semi-live.

[algory]

No question...
NOT alive!

[aftabac]

Hi
well if you think them as not alive then you must give the justification for that, that how you consider them as not-alive so that we could also learn your view point.

regards
aftab

[admin]

Interesting discussion

For a virus then to be classified as alive

they must:


* Reproduce (I guess they do in a way)

* Obtain and use energy (they do not really use energy however what about the atp they steal to generate their strands?)

* Grow, develop, and die (Do Rnases or Dnases kill them?)

* Respond to the environment (they respond in a way to drugs by mutating (do they respond or does selection play a role?)

Very weird things viruses are.... could you say they are a parasite?? They do depend on other organisms to live :P

[algory]

Ok,
In my opinion every single characteristic of living cells has to be fulfilled. I think you all agree with me that viruses do not generate energy (no metabolism) and they do not react on their surrounding.
Therefore viruses are not alive.

m2c