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Jun10-09, 10:48 PM   #32
 
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Quote by DaveC426913 View Post
If I understand correctly, viruses are chemically inert when they're not in a cell.
Viruses are just a length of DNA (or RNA) with a sugar coating.

A similair problematic example is mitochondria, they exist in all our cells, but they have their own DNA and their own evolutionary history. They are probabaly originally bacteria that were absorbed into the first cells.

Since we can't live without them I suppose mitochondria could argue wether people are really alive!