There Are Viruses Non Living Essay

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So what are viruses? The definition from the oxford dictionary states that viruses are ‘An infective agent that typically consists of a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat, is too small to be seen by light microscopy, and is able to multiply only within the living cells of a host’
For the past 100 years or so the scientific community has been baffled by what viruses actually are and how to classify them, initially they had been viewed as a type of poison, then as life-forms and then biological chemicals, after all this time though scientists are still struggling to come to the conclusion as to whether they are actually living or nonliving.
i)So on what grounds are viruses considered non-living?
First we must consider what being alive actually means, most people would agree a living entity is in a state bounded by both birth and death.
Living organisms are thought to require a degree of biochemical autonomy or being able to carry on the metabolic activities that produce the molecules and energy needed to sustain the organism. …show more content…
The enormous complexity of the Mimi virus’s genetics “challenges the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms.” In recent years, several new giant viruses have been isolated from different environments and specimens. The research into giant viruses is still in its initial phase and information that may arise in the coming years could change current conceptions of life, diversity and evolution as the recent discoveries about these virus’s genomes blur the line between virus and microorganism, as it has revealed an astonishing complexity and abundance of genetic material previously unseen, which brings doubt around some of the key arguments used to argue that viruses shouldn’t be considered

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