Viruses are strange, fascinating agents, not least because scientists still find it difficult to say whether they qualify as living organisms or not.
To replicate, viruses have to infect a host — so in a live biological environment, viruses are also “alive,” interacting with the cells of the host they infect and multiplying.
At the same time, on their own, outside an infected host, viruses are more “dead” than “alive,” since they are a protein “package,” containing specific genetic material.
