Are Viruses Alive? By Bo Howes The word virus means “poi-son” in Latin. Viruses are submicro-scopic intracellular parasites that consist of either RNA or DNA, and a protective coat of protein. It has caused countless diseases in vari-ous organisms. The term virus was first used in the 1890s to describe agents that caused diseases that were smaller than bacteria. The ex-istence of viruses was established in 1892, when Russian scientist Dimity I. Ivanovsky discovered microscopic particles …showed first 75 words of 306 total…

…showed last 75 words of 306 total…asexual production, but by injecting its genetic material into the nucleus of a living cell. Finally, they found out that viruses have adaptations. They have the ability to mutate into different strains to resist man-made drugs. In short, these are some views and facts about the virus. To this day, scientists are still fiercely debating whether viruses are alive. Should we consider them alive since they perform some life processes or simply consider them lifeless?