Doing report on why viruses are not dead or alive, need good resources!!?

A virus does not have its own 'machinary' to produce its proteins on its own...it does not have cytoplasm and ribosomes needed to protein synthesis

It needs to depend on the host cell to replicate itself, and is only 'alive' in the host cell

there are arguments that it is alive becasue a living thing is defined as something that has its own genetic material and is able to replicate...

Doing report on why viruses are not dead or alive, need good resources!!?nortan

Well I would google for articles by a world-renowned virologist, Dr. Luis Villarreal. He is a professor at UC Irvine and has written many articles about this question in popular science magazines such as Scientific American and newpapers like the LA Times. Also Wikipedia is good, I know for a fact that he edits their virology section so it should be pretty informative. Just type in "are viruses alive" into google and you should find some good articles, the Scientific American one however costs money so you will need to visit a library or if you are in university just download from a campus computer since they will have a subscription. Good luck.

Doing report on why viruses are not dead or alive, need good resources!!?noton

nobody knows for sure, but if you look in most science books, they will say that a virus is not a living thing because to be classified as alive you have to: