All living things must maintain homeostasis. But because viruses do not contain nuclei, cytoplasm, or other organelles, they do not have a way to monitor and maintain their internal environment. Some may argue that virions, the state viruses are in outside of a host cell, maintains homeostasis because the capsid envelopes the virus DNA to resist changes in the environment. However, this is an invalid argument because nothing changes inside a virion. The capsid is simply there to coat and protect the DNA, and is impotent to adapt or respond to environmental changes. Virions are merely dormant and inert, only waiting to infiltrate a host cell. Another argument scientists make in favor of viruses being alive is that they reproduce. But there is no fine line between the way viruses reproduce and how other organisms reproduce. Unlike other cells, viruses do not possess the necessary tools to make a copy of their DNA. They require a host cell to reproduce by hijacking the cell’s own replication system and inserting their own DNA. This forces the cell to reconfigure into producers of the original intruding virus, and make countless replicas of the virus. Because of this, the term “replicate”
All living things must maintain homeostasis. But because viruses do not contain nuclei, cytoplasm, or other organelles, they do not have a way to monitor and maintain their internal environment. Some may argue that virions, the state viruses are in outside of a host cell, maintains homeostasis because the capsid envelopes the virus DNA to resist changes in the environment. However, this is an invalid argument because nothing changes inside a virion. The capsid is simply there to coat and protect the DNA, and is impotent to adapt or respond to environmental changes. Virions are merely dormant and inert, only waiting to infiltrate a host cell. Another argument scientists make in favor of viruses being alive is that they reproduce. But there is no fine line between the way viruses reproduce and how other organisms reproduce. Unlike other cells, viruses do not possess the necessary tools to make a copy of their DNA. They require a host cell to reproduce by hijacking the cell’s own replication system and inserting their own DNA. This forces the cell to reconfigure into producers of the original intruding virus, and make countless replicas of the virus. Because of this, the term “replicate”