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According to Wikipedia[1]: > Scientific opinions differ on whether viruses are a form of life, or organic structures that interact with living organisms. And:
by abjKT26nO8 7y ago
According to Wikipedia[1]:
> Scientific opinions differ on whether viruses are a form of life, or organic structures that interact with living organisms.
And:
> Viruses are now recognised as ancient and as having origins that pre-date the divergence of life into the three domains.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus
- s_kilk 7y agoI was taught that viruses are weird little machines, similar but unrelated to the things we recognise as alive. Interesting that there's difference of opinion on the matter. Edit: here's a question for the room; if viruses are unrelated to the rest of "life", but are endogenous to the earth, are they alien?
- antonvs 7y agoIt's an overstatement to say that viruses are "unrelated to the rest of life". They have RNA or even DNA, which almost certainly makes them related. If we found a living organism which didn't have RNA or DNA, that would be a good candidate for an alien. It would help if we found it on another planet though.
- s_kilk 7y agoThanks for the clarification, that makes sense.
- garmaine 7y agoThat sounds like vitalism in disguise. All cells are weird little machines. Viruses are just smaller than normal. (There are some legitimate reasons to say viruses are not “alive”, but being little machines is not one of them.)
- joveian 7y ago> Viruses are now recognised as ancient and as having origins that pre-date the divergence of life into the three domains. Here is an interesting article on this aspect: https://www.quantamagazine.org/were-giant-viruses-the-first-life-on-earth-20140710/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/were-giant-viruses-the-first-...