EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Viruses are considered as something between living and non-living because they do not grow or reproduce by themselves. This makes them non-living. However, when a virus enters a living cell of an organism, it obtains energy from the host cell and starts reproducing.

Detailed explanation-2: -Viruses are not considered living as they do not resemble other living organisms. They did not find a place in the classification system as they aren’t truly living. They are not made up of cells like other living organisms.

Detailed explanation-3: -A virus is considered as a living organism and an obligate parasite when inside a host cell.

Detailed explanation-4: -Outside the host cell, they remain inactive and die eventually. Metabolism is the defining property of living organisms, but it is absent in viruses. And, hence viruses are called as connecting links between living and nonliving organisms.

Detailed explanation-5: -It is found that viruses depend on the host cell for the raw materials and energy necessary for nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, processing, and transport. Viruses are simply nonliving parasites of living metabolic systems but a spectrum exists between what is certainly alive and what is not.