Question

By itself, a virus can not reproduce,grow and develop,respond to stimuli, take in material and energy from the environment,nor show any adaptation. However, it is organized with a protein coat that surrounds hereditary material and once inside another living cell the virus takes over the host's metabolic machinery in order to grow, develop, and reproduce new particles. Therefore, is the virus a living or dead organism? Could you please explain your answer?

Answer 1

It has been long debated whether viruses are living or dead, there are facts that state virus as being non-living, considering they do not perform life function independently in the environment and remain as an assembly of molecules such as protein, nucleic acid, etc. They do not perform functions that define a living system, such as division, consumption of food, etc when they are found without a host in the environment.

There are also claims of considering viruses as living organism based on their ability to divide and carry on life functions on entering a host living cell. The functions virus perform in a living system are those of a living organism and thus support the claim

There is, however, no concluding statement on the state of the virus as living or dead.