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"A Virus Is a Living Organism"

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Calling a virus a living organism overstates an unsettled question — by the cellular-life criteria most courses teach, a virus fails several tests.

Show

A virion has no metabolism, makes no ATP, and cannot reproduce without hijacking a host cell's machinery.

Watch for

This entry states one basis for denying viral life — Bio 1919 gives the equally strong basis for granting it.