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 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: -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-4: -Viruses are considered to be nonliving. How are they similar to living organisms, and how are they different? Viruses resemble organisms because they can multiply. They are different because they are not alive: they are not cells, they do not use their own energy to grow or respond to their surroundings.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.