Lets settle it...
Are virus's living...or are they dead?
also general Microbiology thread?
any tips on a major in microbio ??
>>7709352
I think its dead, and satan and god control them and what they do is decided by a divine power above humans.
>>7709352
Nothing is living. Nothing is dead.
Everything is living.
Everything dead.
All and none of the above, and it makes absolutely no functional difference. Problem reconciled, life is an old concept we're having trouble outgrowing and letting go of.
>>7709352
>Are virus's living...or are they dead?
Semantics
>>7709352
depends on your definition. there are a lot of important things viruses don't have in common with living things. there are a lot of important things they do have in common with living things.
>>7709382
also, the question is more whether you want to call them living or nonliving rather than living or dead
Personally I like to think being alive comes from being a self replicating agent. Makin babies = livin. So this would include prions and computer viruses obv
>>7709352
1. Living
2. Non-living
3. Misfits: Viruses, prions and other miscellaneous crap. (Sometimes called quasi-life)
Three separate categories.
Do viruses really look like that? :S
>>7709457
Yes.
They aren't living and they aren't dead. They are an extremely primitive biological device.
>>7709457
Bacteria eating viruses do. Ones that infect animals tend to be roughly spherical.
>>7709457
Some do, not most.
The most accepted theory for the origin of viruses is a degenerative theory whereby they started as things similar to bacteria. This theory gets support from very large and elaborate viruses like Mimivirus which appear to come from early in the branching of the virus evolutionary tree. If viruses evolved from living things, the only way to dismiss them from life status is that that they have no metabolism and depend on external cells to reproduce. That's probably a valid dismissal though.
Anyway it's creepy if you make the analogy with the undead, because viruses are parasites on the living that were alive in the distant past.
well theres the DNA part of it which make it living. but then again theyre too small to be considered living things.
Why do they look like that?
>>7709537
Evolution
>>7709537
The warm glow of God's loving and unique design.
>>7709558
>>7709539
>>7709352
This is really just another shitty popsci semantics debate that doesn't matter at all.
While you're at it, you should contact Brady from numberphile and ask him to make a tau vs pi video.
