Question

Organise a discussion in your class on the topic, are viruses living or nonliving?

Answer 1

Hint: Viruses cannot be classified as either a living organism or non-living. These viruses are inactive when they are present outside of host cells, but become active within host cells. They are considered both living and nonliving things.

Complete answer:
A virus is a non-cellular, infectious entity made up of genetic material and protein that can invade and reproduce only within the living cells of bacteria, plants, and animals. They possess certain defining characteristic features of living organisms and nonliving entities.
Scientists categorize viruses as neither living nor non-living. This is due to the fact the viruses possess the characteristic of both the living and the non-living. For instance, viruses can reproduce inside a host just like any other living organism, but this ability to reproduce is lost when the virus is outside the host cell. This is because viruses do not have the cellular machinery that is required to multiply, hence they hijack a living cell.
Viruses can also be crystallized, which no other living organisms can do. It is these factors that lead to viruses being classified in the grey area – between the living and nonliving.

Additional Information: Viruses can be classified primarily on their phenotypic characteristics, core content, chemical composition, capsid structure, size, shape, genome structure, and modes of replication.
Some properties of Viruses are-
-They are enclosed in a protective envelope.
-The presence of spikes helps in attaching the viruses to the host cell.
-These viruses do not grow, neither respire nor metabolize, but they reproduce.
-They are surrounded by a protein coat – capsid and have a nucleic acid core comprising DNA or RNA.

Note: -Many viruses have either DNA or RNA as the genetic element and the nucleic acid with single or double strands.
-The whole infectious virus called a virion, that has nucleic acid and an outer shell of proteins.
-The term virus was given by the Dutch microbiologist, Martinus Willem Beijerinck in the year 1897. It is derived from Latin, which means poison or venomous substance.
-The study of viruses is called virology.