From: John Beckett 

David N. Barnett  wrote in message
news::
> I'm pretty sure that virusses are included as part of "Life On Earth."

My vague recollection from general reading is that Adam is right. Viruses
are NOT currently regarded as alive! Obviously, however, this issue boils
down to how life is defined.

At any rate, here are two sites that support my opinion:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cell7.htm
http://www.beyondbooks.com/lif72/2c.asp?pf=on

To me, the principle argument in favour of the "a virus is not
alive" argument is the observation that all living things consist of
groups of co-operating cells. A virus is not even one cell. Instead, a
virus is a complex molecule that has the trick of entering certain kinds of
cells and causing the cell to make copies of the virus.

I realise that the above is a circular argument. To paraphrase one of the
sites I visited, "we may never know for certain if viruses are alive
... but that's life!".

John

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