Still Waters Posted March 16, 2013 #1 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Research published last week in Nature appears to add another point to the controversial argument that viruses might be living creatures. Scientists at Tufts University School of Medicine have found a virus that captures its host’s immune system and uses it to destroy the host. In order to be deemed a real “living creature”, an organism needs to have a genome, be able to grow and make more of itself by replication, and be capable of evolving, or adapting to its environment over successive generations. Humans are living creatures, as we exhibit all of those capacities. http://blogs.discove...g/#.UUTMKjdNFRM 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHaYap Posted March 16, 2013 #2 Share Posted March 16, 2013 more human bigotry nonsense virus are the 'perfect' living creatures they the closest to 'immortal' as we define it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilly Posted March 16, 2013 #3 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Well, that's nice. I still want to eradicate them...don't care if they're *alive* *dead* *undead*. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bildr Posted March 17, 2013 #4 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) Yet we still don't know and can't even theorise how viruses came into existence! http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-origins-of-viruses-14398218 Edited March 17, 2013 by Bildr 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted March 17, 2013 #5 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Well, that's nice. I still want to eradicate them...don't care if they're *alive* *dead* *undead*. I'm with you on that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted March 17, 2013 #6 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I thought it was well known that virus's adapted. After all we get a new Flu shot every year, because the flu virus keeps changing. Or is that supposed to be just random mutation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevemagegod Posted March 17, 2013 #7 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I have always had a hunch that Viruses could be alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted March 18, 2013 #8 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Well, that's nice. I still want to eradicate them...don't care if they're *alive* *dead* *undead*. You might think that to be the case, but like the song says, it ain't necessarily so. Much of our human genome is made up of segments of DNA that we have acquired from viruses. In a scientific experiment on sheep, they deactivated certain viral components of the sheep's DNA and found that the sheep could not carry offspring to term. No virus DNA, no baby lambs. So while there are certainly some horrible nasty killer viruses like ebola, and annoying ones like the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, apparently we also cannot function properly without their genetic input. In any case the viruses they are referencing here are bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria and in this case a bacteria that causes many human deaths every year. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdesert50 Posted March 18, 2013 #9 Share Posted March 18, 2013 So, one could argue that a human is the evolved sum of individual life forms working in near harmony. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krypter3 Posted March 18, 2013 #10 Share Posted March 18, 2013 The day Viruses become sentient.....Odin help us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpandMyMind Posted March 18, 2013 #11 Share Posted March 18, 2013 You can almost hear vegans worldwide conspiring to have all vaccines banned because 'killing viruses is murder'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krypter3 Posted March 18, 2013 #12 Share Posted March 18, 2013 You can almost hear vegans worldwide conspiring to have all vaccines banned because 'killing viruses is murder'. Next thing you'll know PETA will be up in arms. I mean it's not that big of a stretch, considering they go after anything. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHaYap Posted March 18, 2013 #13 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Next thing you'll know PETA will be up in arms. I mean it's not that big of a stretch, considering they go after anything. I like it best when they 'go' naked 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingAngel Posted March 18, 2013 #14 Share Posted March 18, 2013 So, one could argue that a human is the evolved sum of individual life forms working in near harmony. As when all humans and countries drop their weapons and start to shake hands, the Earth will be a harmonic living creature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Betta Posted March 19, 2013 #15 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Of course viruses are living things lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chooky88 Posted March 19, 2013 #16 Share Posted March 19, 2013 (edited) I had this argument with my Biology teacher in 1984. It's alive because it reproduces and reacts to external stimuli . just because it doesn't have the qualities of other organisms such as bacteria doesn't mean we have the right to say it's not a living thing. And I'll e-slap anyone who says fire qualifies as living as it consumes oxygen, reproduces and reacts to external stimuli. Teacher said that and I almost slapped him! Edited March 19, 2013 by Chooky88 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.United_Nations Posted March 19, 2013 #17 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Of course viruses are living things lol They are concdiered to be neither living nor dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EllJay Posted March 19, 2013 #18 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Research published last week in Nature appears to add another point to the controversial argument that viruses might be living creatures. Can they be reasoned with? Call for truce and offer a bribe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. K. Posted March 19, 2013 #19 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I had this argument with my Biology teacher in 1984. It's alive because it reproduces and reacts to external stimuli . just because it doesn't have the qualities of other organisms such as bacteria doesn't mean we have the right to say it's not a living thing. And I'll e-slap anyone who says fire qualifies as living as it consumes oxygen, reproduces and reacts to external stimuli. Teacher said that and I almost slapped him! When I was five years old, I was convinced that fire was alive. Two houses in my neighborhood burned down, and I just knew that it was after me next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHaYap Posted March 19, 2013 #20 Share Posted March 19, 2013 they are uncomfortable calling 'virus' "Living Creatures" because that would make "Viruses" Immortal they feel more comfort with viruses not living so viruses not dying doesn't matter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted March 19, 2013 #21 Share Posted March 19, 2013 They are concdiered to be neither living nor dead Undead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted March 21, 2013 #22 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Living or not, to be or not to be? Many parisites are simple compared with their free-living relatives. Worms that live in the gut may not posess a digestive system, absorbing nutrients by osmosis as it were. While similar species that live in water or soil have a fully functional digestive system. So the question my be: are viruses degenerate organisms reduced to such a simple state that the require a living cell to reproduce? Perhaps they were once more complex, akin to bacteria or other simple life, but over time only parasitic forms survived. These are very complex little bundles of DNA and it begs the questions could they even have existed before cellular organisms? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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