why aren’t viruses “alive”?

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m not very knowledgeable about science, so I’m struggling to understand the notion that viruses aren’t “alive”, and the robot analogies people use. I understand that they don’t have some of the characteristics (cells, ability to reproduce), but my mind can’t wrap itself around the notion that they’re like objects. Can you please give some examples that could explain this in a way that is accessible to someone who isn’t very advanced in the subject?

Thanks

EDIT: wow thanks so much guys for so many amazing replies!!!

In: 29

Answer 1

A virus on it’s own does absolutely nothing, it’s just an inanimate object. The interesting thing happens when it interacts with a living cell. The cell absorbs it like it absorbs many similar things. Interacting with insides of the cell it breaks apart and then there are loose strands of RNA inside a cell. The cell does with them what it does with all loose strands of RNA and translates it into active proteins that start doing things inside a cell, there is no check to make sure the RNA originated from cells own genome.

That’s why a virus is not a living thing, virus itself doesn’t do any of the things a living thing does, everything that happens is done by the host cell up to and including making more viruses.