Is a virus (the one that causes sickness) a living thing?
Well for one thing, it is certainly not a cell! Look at your average viral structure – some form of genome, protein capsule, and sometimes a lipid envelope. Then look at any cell – completely different structure. This is the first argument against viruses as a living organism – they violate cell theory (that is, all living organisms are composed of one or more cells), and there are plenty more. Viruses are obligate parasites – meaning their reproduction is dependant on a host’s living cells’ machinary. Viruses to not metabolize, they do not move, they do not sustain an internal environment (homeostasis), and they do not grow. The only conditions of life they obey are totally dependant on their interaction will living cells – they respond to their environment when they attach to a host cell, they reproduce using the host cells machinary, and they evolve dependant on the host cells’ ability to facilitate reproduction. So really, while debate still exists, the evidence strongly suggests t
