David Fontaine wrote:
> 
> Sander wrote:
> 
> > Generally a live virus is considered to be able to initiate a complete
> > infection in the right host, while a weakened or 'dead' virus provokes a
> > immunological reaction mainly, is what I think I remember. Whether it's
> > alive is really not an interesting issue.
> 
> I know, I just thought I'd bring it up and see what people said :-)

The best definition of life I've seen so far is "something that can
cause a local decrease in entropy".  If I remember correctly, according
to this definition, virii would be alive, but prions (mad cow's disease)
wouldn't.

> 
> --
> ___     ______________________________________________________
>  | \     |_                 <dav### [at] faricynet> <ICQ 55354965>
>  |_/avid |ontaine               http://www.faricy.net/~davidf/
> 
> "Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come" -Beatles

-- 
Francois Labreque | Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a snooze
     flabreq      | button on a cat who wants breakfast.
        @         |      - Unattributed quote from rec.humor.funny
  attglobal.net

Post a reply to this message