Question

discussed that all living organisms have seven properties in common: (1) they grow and develop, (2) interact/respond to the environment, (3) reproduce, (4) process energy, (5) self-regulate, (6) are ordered/organized, and (7) evolve/adapt. Viruses, however, represent a challenge to this because they do not self regulate or process energy, which has led to many scientists not classifying viruses as living and say they are simply particles. Based on what you know from, should viruses be considered living? There is no right answer to this, just support your position.

Answer 1

I think virus should consider living. See why- Out of the 7 properties you mentioned in the question, virus possess most of them. Like they grow and develop = Whether in host but they develop and grow, grow at the level that make scientific work tough to fight against it like Corona or HIV. Apart from this virus like HIV can be considered intelligent also who changes according to the drug supply and generate resistance.

Interact and respond to environment - Yes they do.. if we consider them non-living then why they become active in host cell. Their in-active state can be named as dormancy. Why can't if we can say seeds are living and they be in dormancy then virus also can be in dormancy until they get favorable environmental. Seed also act non-living if water is not given, it will not grow in plant. Hence virus also respond to environment.

Reproduce- They reproduce as well otherwise countering AIDS would not have become that much difficult. They replicate at fast pace and kill WBC so we can say they invade also which is sign of living things. They protect against drug which is also sign of living thing. All the living being had these two properties "invasion and protection".

Apart from this virus also evolved with time like other living organism had done. Virus undergo natural selection and evolution just like other cell. When two virus infect a cell at the same time they may swap genetic material to make new one.

Based on all the reason I think virus is a living organism otherwise so much it would not have given space in biology. Scientist are not fully satisfied with the fact that it is living but are not able to reject it as living totally. They know somewhere in their mind that it resemble living at some point.

Thanks, good luck