Of Course It’s Alive!

It is alive!

A recent Science News article reports on a researcher’s discovery that is shaking up the current paradigm a bit. Apparently, he had actually found a gigantic virus—one so large and possessing such a peculiar mixture of traits that it is challenging the very notion of what it means to be alive. One researcher commented, “I think the discovery really messed up the heads of a lot of people”. Still another says, “The virus definitely seems to have its own agenda”. Isn’t the obvious agenda shared by all life a will to survival. I imagine “messed up heads” come from a specie centric ideal of what ‘will’ (free or otherwise) means. Acknowledging that a human and a virus both have a will to survive really messes with our sense of human superiority.

Anyway, at least some scientists are finally getting around to accepting the view that viruses are alive. The curious thing for me is why viruses haven’t been viewed as being alive all along. Our cultural bias gets in the way and obstructs the view. If ‘it’ doesn’t pass our model for what life is, then it can’t be living. Naturally, this by-path applies across the board: If a __(insert word)__ doesn’t fit our model for what a true __(inserted word)__ is, it can’t be real. Oddly, people prefer by-paths.

The similarities between viruses and ‘higher’ life forms don’t attract much notice. Indeed, Nature throughout conceals a mysterious sameness that is not readily apparent. Sameness is more mysterious because the surface differences are easier to see. We are much more aware of differences thanks to biology where in differences stimulate neurons. Similarities, on the other hand, more often pass us by unseen, bore us, or put us to sleep.

Here is its dinner

Speaking of similarities and differences, history is replete with our tendency to make mountains out of molehill’s differences: skin color, religion, politics, gender, sex orientation, age, beauty, skill, knowledge, social status, etc. I imagine we amplify such apparent differences to give ourselves a sense of identity around which ‘we of the less different‘ can rally. This serves the tribal instinct well; we are this, they are not this.

What chance then does a lowly virus have in being recognized as life? Surprisingly more than I would have thought before reading the article.