>Biology professor firmly believes Viruses are living things

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If virii aren't alive, is virology still a subfield of biology?

>>8372925
"Living" is just an arbitrary intangible term anyway, there's really no true scientific definition of life just like there's no scientific definition of "consciousness" or "the soul."

>>8372925
Define 'biology'
Define 'professor'
Define 'firmly'
Define 'believes'
Define 'virus'
Define 'living'
Define 'things'
Define 'right'

>>8372925
"life" is weird

If viruses are alive, then we are not alive.

Which is true, there is no useful distinction. All viruses do is show this to be the case.

>>8372963
Define "define"

>>8372979

Define " " ".

>>8372982
Define

half the country doesn't think a fetus is a living thing

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are NEET antivirus?
virus don't eat and reproduce themselves
NEET only eat
and both destroy their host/house

a virus cannot reproduce without a host so outside a host it is not a living thing, but in one it is.

>>8372985
I think the proper statistics are 51:49 actually.

>>8372984

>>8372991
You mean a parasite?

>>8372925
They have genetical material that can mutate and evolve and they can reproduce, sounds alive to me anon.

>>8372925
Viruses contain the so called mollecules of life (DNA/RNA), yet they do not have what scientists call biological functions. Viruses, like any other living organism, mutate and adapt, but they don't acquire nutrients nor do they have any metabolism to process them and secrete waste like any other "living" thing. They are just floating protein shells containing nucleic acids waiting to inject those acids into a cell and hijack the cellular machinery to create more copies of themselves. So, back to your biol professor, are viruses alive? maybe. You can't say they are,but you can't say they aren't. It is a weird question, really. What makes us be alive? Should we discriminare viruses cause they have no metabolism? After all, they're made of the same basic stuff as cells, same elements, same molecules.. The thing about science is, every time you answer a question you only get more questions.

Good luck tho.

>>8373038
they can only reproduce by using another cell

>>8372979
winner

are corals alive

>>8373129
yes

>>8372955
woah...

The term living is arbitrary

Imo no because no protein production mechanisms and no metabolism seal the deal

>>8373067
Tapeworms can't reproduce without a host either.

"Life" is a very difficult term to define, as well as "number", "exist", and "meme".

>>8373219
>"meme"
isn't difficult to define; "meme" means everything the one who uses the word thinks it means, and can mean pretty much everything, expect what newfags thinks it means, which means it doesn't mean anything at all since everyone is a newfag and newfags are a meme.

>>8373067
>>8373216
both these mean nothing, many organisms only reproduce in certain environments. Tapeworms still have their own protein synthesis and metabolism

>>8373129
They were, and left behind a shell that is what we know as coral

>>8373067
Why do the circumstances of reproduction matter?

You can clone humans by extracting DNA from a person and implanting it into the egg of another person. Would that not count as reproduction? Would the clone count as alive?

>>8372955
>virii
Learn latin faggot

>>8373225
>everyone is a newfag
Says you. I came here is 2007, newfag.

>>8372925
Life is arbitrary.

Viruses are simply biological material/machinery. They can't survive and reproduce themselves on their own, much in the same way the organelles of a cell can't.

>>8375701
It's not the circumstances that matter it's the ability that matters. Learn to read.

>>8372925
I always considered them more along the lines of nanomachines. It's the fact that they contain genetic material but require living organisms to reproduce that causes more confusion. They can either be active or inactive but never alive or dead. So naw, they aren't living.

>>8372925

The definition of life is tricky and arbitrary. Basically what >>8376126 says is true, viruses are like biological nanomachines, but some are really complex, even cell-like and are driven by many of the same mechanisms as biological life, so yeah the best answer to your question is "not really, but kind of".

Aliveness is a spectrum, not a dichotomy.

>>8376186

This man speaks what I believe is true. My virology professor told me to fuck off when I told him though.

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>Biology teacher says all races are equal
>Get sudden urge to start throwing racial IQ charts at him

>>8376694
All races being equal doesn't make sense because geological evidence of human ancestry shows different volume and frequency of race mixing between more humane form humans and less humane form humans.

>>8376694
>they actually allow /pol/lacks into university

>>8376694
The correct reply would be to ask which metric or relation he is using to define "equal".

>>8376964
>behaviors define genes
When will trumplets learn?

>>8376193
that's why he is a professor and you're on /sci/

>>8376694
>you mean cultural IQ charts

>>8375960
What about mitochondria?