Eli5-If a virus isn’t technically alive, I would assume it doesn’t have instinct. Where does it get its instructions/drive to know to infect host cells and multiply?
In: 7067
Our cells have the ability to grab molecules and bring them inside themselves. It’s used for all kinds of signaling in our bodies, for example adrenaline.
Viruses are coated with molecules that our cells think are one of these signal molecules, so if a virus particle touches one of our cells it will grab the virus at which point the DNA in the virus gets released into the cell, and the cell then unwittingly uses that new DNA to make more viruses.
Basically the virus just floats around and it’s our own cells that do all the work.
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