EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Emma believes viruses are not living organisms while Kayla believes viruses are living organisms. Which student is correct and why? Emma is correct because viruses cannot reproduce on their own.

Detailed explanation-2: -Viruses are not made out of cells, they can’t keep themselves in a stable state, they don’t grow, and they can’t make their own energy. Even though they definitely replicate and adapt to their environment, viruses are more like androids than real living organisms.

Detailed explanation-3: -This is because viruses do not have the cellular machinery that is required to multiply, hence they hijack a living cell. Another aspect that makes viruses lie on the border between the living and the non-living is their ability to be crystallized.

Detailed explanation-4: -A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism.

Detailed explanation-5: -It can be considered as living when it is inside any host (bacterium) as the virus infects the host cell and replicates inside it making several copies of it. When it is outside the host cell, it is non-living as it can not carry out its life-processes of either reproducing or digestion etc.