It is a shame that the only way to access this kind of information is through a paywall. It is my opinion that knowledge and information, once produced, should be free. Particularly when it comes to science which is in large part already funded through government programs (so called grants).
With that aside, this seems like a very interesting overview of the cell, it's dynamics and structures and I think the title is mostly a provocation; which I'm okay with. The cell is a living organism because we have largely defined the cutoff for living organisms at the cell; it's much more interesting to consider if viruses are machines or not and that really is a hot-topic in the biology community. At least it was when I studied biology 10 years ago.
> The cell is a living organism because we have largely defined the cutoff for living organisms at the cell;
Isn't that because all living organisms are composed of one or more cells ( cell theory )? It isn't an arbitrary cutoff but rather a result of observation that the smallest thing we can confidently called a living organism is a cell and all organisms are composed of cells.
> it's much more interesting to consider if viruses are machines or not and that really is a hot-topic in the biology community.
They are not self-contained self-replicating machines. But are they machines nonetheless? I'd say they are non-self-replicating machines. But I guess it all depends on how you define machine. Just like how do you define life or living determines whether viruses are alive or not.
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[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 14.7 ms ] threadIt is a shame that the only way to access this kind of information is through a paywall. It is my opinion that knowledge and information, once produced, should be free. Particularly when it comes to science which is in large part already funded through government programs (so called grants).
With that aside, this seems like a very interesting overview of the cell, it's dynamics and structures and I think the title is mostly a provocation; which I'm okay with. The cell is a living organism because we have largely defined the cutoff for living organisms at the cell; it's much more interesting to consider if viruses are machines or not and that really is a hot-topic in the biology community. At least it was when I studied biology 10 years ago.
Isn't that because all living organisms are composed of one or more cells ( cell theory )? It isn't an arbitrary cutoff but rather a result of observation that the smallest thing we can confidently called a living organism is a cell and all organisms are composed of cells.
> it's much more interesting to consider if viruses are machines or not and that really is a hot-topic in the biology community.
They are not self-contained self-replicating machines. But are they machines nonetheless? I'd say they are non-self-replicating machines. But I guess it all depends on how you define machine. Just like how do you define life or living determines whether viruses are alive or not.