Mystery #1Tier 2microbes / living things

Is a virus a living creature, or something stranger in between?

A virus can't move, can't eat, and can't even make more of itself while it sits alone. By that measure it seems as lifeless as a stone. And yet, get it near your cells and it multiplies into millions. So is a virus a living creature, or something stranger caught in between?

An illustration of bacteriophage viruses, drawn as little orange landers, sitting on bacteria and filling them with copies of themselves — Photo: David Goodsell · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What do you reckon: is a virus alive, not alive, or somehow sitting on the fence between the two?

There's no single magic word to type, have a go in your own words, then reveal the answer to see how close you got.

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