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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Viruses, Living or Non-Living?
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Viruses, Living or Non-Living?
2006-03-10, 12:07 AM #41
So then what do we classify prions as? They do all the same things viri do, but are protein strands, not nucleic acids.
omnia mea mecum porto
2006-03-10, 12:50 AM #42
Originally posted by Roach:
So then what do we classify prions as? They do all the same things viri do, but are protein strands, not nucleic acids.


prions are not classified as living things by themselves i believe. they are just proteins - misshapen proteins that somehow change other proteins with the same amino acid sequences to their own misshapen conformation. they do not reproduce.

prions are very interesting. i suggest all of you read up on this bizarre protein.
2006-03-10, 12:55 AM #43
[QUOTE=Vincent Valentine]Viruses are evolving, reproducing entities. Just because they aren't built the same way as other earth life doesn't mean they're not alive.[/QUOTE]

And yet you then require all life to be built of DNA/RNA?

[QUOTE=Vincent Valentine]Not if we have dna/rna as a requirement too.[/QUOTE]
2006-03-10, 1:00 AM #44
Originally posted by ragna:
prions are not classified as living things by themselves i believe. they are just proteins - misshapen proteins that somehow change other proteins with the same amino acid sequences to their own misshapen conformation. they do not reproduce.

Which is my point. All viri are are protein capsuls with nucleic acids in them that are coded so organelles develope new generations. They themselves do not reproduce.

Both prions and viri rely on a host, however, prions are much closer to reproducing, as they themselves force the the conversion of a normal protein to a prion; viri themselves are not involved in the production of new nucleic strands.
omnia mea mecum porto
2006-03-10, 1:42 AM #45
Biological and computer viruses are both very similar. They do contain code that defines them and make them as complete as they need to be as obligatory parasites. That means also they are practically nothing if kept separate from their specific, intended hosts.

The only difference is that computer systems are so stable that little evolution (mutations) can happen to computer viruses.

Is virus alive... Hmm... It's like a zombie: It's composed of the same matter as living things, but it's not quite alive.
Frozen in the past by ICARUS
2006-03-10, 7:45 AM #46
Originally posted by Giraffe:
And yet you then require all life to be built of DNA/RNA?

I should have been more specific and said earth life, although that's still iffy.
2006-03-10, 5:48 PM #47
Originally posted by Pagewizard_YKS:
Viruses are not living, but they are not completely non-living, either.

I feel that the fact that they are self replicating with the assistance of a host (as opposed to something like a chair or table lamp which obviously is not self replicating and not alive) means that they are alive to some extent.

But they don't self replicate. They merely contain the instructions on how to replicate themselves, but they do none of the work.
"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" Anyone who recognizes this quote is awsome.
2006-03-10, 6:08 PM #48
They do some of the work, like injecting their dna into the host cell.
2006-03-12, 4:39 PM #49
Not all of them inject their RNA/DNA, some of them are designed to be consumed by the cell and disolve once inside.
omnia mea mecum porto
2006-03-12, 6:53 PM #50
Originally posted by Ruthven:
viruses can KILL!

Can something non-living kill?

hmm?

Bullets can kill . . .
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