Microbiologists Patrick Moreira and Purificación López-García, together with virologists Arturo Ludmir and Lynn Enquist, are at the center of a sharp debate over whether viruses count as living ...

For much of modern biology, scientists argued that viruses are not alive, pointing to a basic limitation: they cannot make proteins on their own and must depend entirely on the cells they infect for ...

For decades, biology textbooks have drawn a firm line: viruses are not alive. They lack the machinery to reproduce on their own, they carry no metabolism, and they depend entirely on host cells to ...

Heshmat Borhani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

In the vast and often unseen world of microscopic life, a recent discovery may force scientists to rethink what it means to be alive. Nestled inside a tiny plankton cell, researchers found a ...