https://www.ck12.org/biology/Charac...son/Characteristics-of-Life-Advanced-BIO-ADV/ The seven characteristics of life include: responsiveness to the environment; growth and change; ability to reproduce; have a metabolism and breathe; maintain homeostasis; being made of cells; and passing traits onto offspring. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Life 01.jpg Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Life 02.jpg Not all scientists agree exactly about what makes up life Ain't that the truth There is not just one distinguishing feature that separates a living thing from a non-living thing. I think viruses should be in the alive listings (disclaimer - I am not a Scientist) The link at the start is only for reference. There is no obligation to go to the article Be aware if you choose to remain ignorant of the article your crops will wither Beelzebub will become your companion herds of black cats will sing to you all night all ladders you encounter will be positioned such that you cannot avoid walking and them salt with remain stubbornly in the shaker and refuse to go over your shoulder all mirrors you encounter will shatter all of the above will be on your bright days 3:30 in the morning here. Back to sleep for me Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! PS no comments, opinions or replies are required to this post and if any are made they will not be acknowledged
The above suggests that viruses are technically not fully alive because they are not cellular. Viruses are much smaller than cells and hijack the host's cells to propagate. But IMO, a virus' active survival strategy to use the host's cellular mitosis to divide, should qualify it as a parasitic living organism.
This may address the organelle network which transports all the viral "information" from cell to cell and is active in cell mitosis. Microtubules in Influenza Virus Entry and Egress For more see; "Is consciousness to be found in quantum processes in microtubules" in the Pseudoscience sub-forum. Don't let that prefix "pseudo" fool you. It's serious science.
Fungis are alive but their spores altought they come from their living cells are not. So are the virus spores, a way to disseminate. We name "virus" the spore but in fact the virus is the "infected" host. An infected host (cell or bacteria) is not always killed by the infection (the real virus can stay alive), but as soon as he is trying to multiply he is killing himself (like other lifeforms that are dying soon they do their reproduction). So yes this is not the mainstran point of view, but this is the point of view that Patrick Forterre (a french virus specialist) was explaining his students 25 years ago. Here the same explaination : https://www.virology.ws/2010/07/22/the-virus-and-the-virion/