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A virus is not able to reproduce itself on its own. Because of that I don't consider virus as a life form. I'm biologist, in case it matters.
by chmike 7y ago
A virus is not able to reproduce itself on its own. Because of that I don't consider virus as a life form. I'm biologist, in case it matters.
- SigmundA 7y agoI cannot reproduce on my own, I need a mate and food and water and air to properly reproduce, that is most life is dependent on its environment to survive including other organisms depending on their needs. A virus needs a host like any parasite, without the host many parasites would not be able to reproduce.
- kazinator 7y agoA virus by itself does not perform any biological functions whatsoever; it just alters the course of events in a host cell. Potassium cyanide can alter what happens in a cell; that doesn't mean potassium cyanide is alive.
- akiselev 7y agoOn a technical level, whether something can reproduce by itself or not is defined by whether they use their own chemical machinery to produce the offspring, such as when a cell divides itself or organisms produce their own gametes. To be pedantic, all you need is at most two (or three, maybe?) of the right gender to reproduce in a vacuum (metaphorically) to make it a living organism. A virus can't reproduce with another virus that way because it can't do anything on its own other than float around waiting for a host, no matter how many strains you mix it with. The host does the actual reproducing for the virus.
- kazinator 7y agoIndeed; the virus being reproduced is just a side effect of the cell making reproducing actions. Cells can repeatedly produce certain proteins. For instance, a silkworm can spin out a thread of silk. That doesn't meant that molecules of silk are alive because they are reproducing.
- SigmundA 7y agoSilk doesn't go on and reproduce through another silk worm once made its complete. Any parasite that requires its host for reproduction could be said to be a byproduct of the host continuing its biological functions usually at the expense of the host. Nature draws no clear lines, humans apply taxonomy, any line we draw about what is alive and what isn't will be arbitrary. My opinion is a virus is alive as it core process is based on how all life on earth operates through DNA/RNA. That is my arbitrary line, a distinct self contained genetic code that continues to replicate and evolve is alive. If that code can no longer continue replicating successfully it is dead.
- twic 7y agoAre lichen fungi life forms?
- uoaei 7y agoHumans aren't either. We need food and water and a hospitable environment to get to a point where we can do that.
- undersuit 7y agoI think that's a pretty good analogy. Viruses are just as incapable of being considered life as our chromosomes are, until you give them a support network.
- filleduchaos 7y agoThis is a confusion of _can_ and _will_.