From owner-cellbiol@net.bio.net Mon Feb 03 22:00:00 1997
Path: biosci!ARNIE.CFI.UNSW.EDU.AU!p.french
From: p.french@ARNIE.CFI.UNSW.EDU.AU (Peter French)
Newsgroups: bionet.cellbiol
Subject: RE: Is a virus alive?
Date: 4 Feb 1997 14:46:34 -0800
Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology
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Dr E. Buxbaum wrote:
>"R. BAKER" <rubaker@nmsu.edu> wrote:
>>Is a virus a living organism or not????  It can reproduce but must rely 
>>on the host cell and the host cell's metabolism?  What constitutes a 
>>virus as alive or non-living?
>
>Nop, it can NOT reproduce. It can only make cells to reproduce it, which 
>is a fundamental difference. Viruses also lack metabolism, another of the 
>characteristics of live.

From which I conclude that s/he thinks that a virus is not alive. This is
clearly nonsense. If a virus is not alive how can it be killed by viricidal
agents? Saying it is not alive because it uses cellular metabolism to
propagate itself is like saying that humans are not alive because we need
the earth's atmosphere to be able to live. Clearly under any sensible
definition of life, viruses are living organisms. A better question is "Are
prions alive?"



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