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March 29, 2024, 05:15:22 am

Author Topic: Are Viruses Alive?  (Read 4694 times)  Share 

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DrowNz

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Are Viruses Alive?
« on: March 28, 2008, 01:31:52 am »
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Hey there.

Was kinda interested to see who else is doing Biology at Uni, one of the best subjects around :)

I wanted to hear your guys' take about Virions/Viruses and whether or not you think they are alive! Also if you could please explain why you think so.

This is for an assignment I have due after the holidays, wanted to gain some perspective  ;)
« Last Edit: March 28, 2008, 01:33:34 am by DrowNz »
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cara.mel

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Re: Are Viruses Alive?
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2008, 08:30:24 am »
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I remember that in high school back in some miscellaneous year between 7-10 they said they don't know because it shows both living things behaviour and non living things behaviour.

But people would either know better now or you'd know that anyway. xD

The real point of this post is to say well done for a post in the science thing outside maths :D

DrowNz

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Re: Are Viruses Alive?
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2008, 03:46:39 pm »
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The real point of this post is to say well done for a post in the science thing outside maths :D
LOL. pretty much ^^.

Nah but with all seriousness, I am looking for some perspective.

It is known that virions, that is, viruses outside a living organism are dormant and don't show any signs of life. However, once they enter an organism and become what is known as viruses, they are able to utilise the hosts own biologocial machinery and satisfy the characteristics of life such as growth and development, reproduction etc..

The way you think about viruses depends on how you perceive and interpret the characteristics of life.

My belief is that viruses are dead and it relys heavily on the fact that the smallest entity that exhibits the characteristics of life is a cell and when those reproduce they come out of a pre-existing cell, viruses don't as they are each assembled independently.
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jess3254

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Re: Are Viruses Alive?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2008, 01:33:00 pm »
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I’ve always found this topic fascinating.
I'm not studying university biology, however last year in IB Biology I did my Internal Assessment on viruses and whether they are living.

In a nutshell, I concluded:

Viruses are disease causing agents, rather than living organisms because;

*It uses the same genetic material as a living organism, and they can evolve by natural selection. However, they have few other characteristics that biologists expect living organisms to possess.
*Viruses require the host cell’s functions to survive and can’t live otherwise. (Some people argue that we require food to survive and are not wholly dependant on ourselves and thus this point is invalid, however we do not require the heart or lungs of another species in order to stay living.)
 *Viruses reproduce inside specific living cells only. They function as parasites in their host organism.

That’s just a rather quick summary!

cosec(x)

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Re: Are Viruses Alive?
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2008, 09:22:01 pm »
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This is an interesting question
Back in year 9 or so, I was told living organisms had to satisfy the acronym MRS GREN (movement, respiration, sensing, growth, reproduction, and something else (excretion and nutrition maybe, it was 5 years ago).
Anyway my teacher said that that isn't entirely true anymore, as there is a protein that may be called alive. I say lets flip a coin, and if its heads, its alive, and if its tails, its not, because tats about as much consensus you'll find on the issue
First Year Uni, BAeroEng/BSc @Monash