Are Viruses Living?

[Ed Rybicki]

> Is fire alive as well?

Does fire replicate?  Do crystals?  Answer is: no....sorry!  Fire is 
simply a hot and progressive exothermic reaction, the light of which 
is caused by excited molecules and clumps thereof, and so is rather 
simple.  Fire also depends on a substrate for its form, which is not 
dictated by itself (paper burns differently to oil).  Crystals grow, 
they do not replicate - and require a "seed" that does not have to be 
formed of themselves.

Next?

 ______________________________________________________
 |     Ed Rybicki, PhD      |  ed at molbiol.uct.ac.za   |
 |    Dept Microbiology     | University of Cape Town |
 | Private Bag, Rondebosch  |   7700, South Africa    |
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