> A virus isn't considered life because they do not follow all of the characteristics of life. This lists consists of:
The list is regrettably a "science-education-ism". My phrase - I don't know of a real one... anyone? A divergence between science-education community practice and science community practice. A rather dramatic one. In actual science practice, "is it alive?" isn't an interesting question, and has none of the importance science-education content often places on it. And people who actually work with viruses, consider them alive. It's perhaps regrettable that so much education content presents the list as science, rather than as an education device. And even as a device it has difficulties, as it doesn't deal well with the richness of biology, including around parasitism, and a binary sort just isn't useful.
The list is regrettably a "science-education-ism". My phrase - I don't know of a real one... anyone? A divergence between science-education community practice and science community practice. A rather dramatic one. In actual science practice, "is it alive?" isn't an interesting question, and has none of the importance science-education content often places on it. And people who actually work with viruses, consider them alive. It's perhaps regrettable that so much education content presents the list as science, rather than as an education device. And even as a device it has difficulties, as it doesn't deal well with the richness of biology, including around parasitism, and a binary sort just isn't useful.