ELi5 – Why are viruses considered to be non-living?
In: Biology
There are 6 (scientists will disagree on this number, saying 6-8) traits that define something as being alive:
1. **It must maintain homeostasis** – it must balance its internal environment. For example, if a human is too hot, it will sweat to lower its body temperature. If a bacteria has too much acidity in it, it will push acids out in order to maintain a balance. Viruses can’t do this.
2. **It must grow over it course of its life.** Viruses never grow, and are created fully-formed.
3. **It can reproduce.** Viruses require infecting a host cell in order to reproduce, making this iffy.
4. **It uses energy.** Technically, viruses don’t use energy. They steal the energy from the host cell.
5. **It responds to stimuli.** This is the hardest one to ELI5, mostly because scientists currently aren’t sure if viruses respond to things like being poked or sudden shifts to acidty.
6. **It adapts via evolution.** Viruses definitely evolve to suit their environment.
Because they can’t reproduce on their own, they need to “hijack” another living organism cell to produce other copies of itself
There is a debate on if viruses are considered alive or dead so it’s still somewhat controversial
They’re not cells. They don’t really do the things we consider living things to do, like consuming “food” or “reproducing”. If they can’t get into a real cell to take over its operation, they don’t reproduce.
They’re about as “alive” as software. Put them into a computer (cell) and they do stuff, but by themselves they just… are.
At least bacteria can grow and fight other bacteria by themselves.
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