[NetBehaviour] 'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive.

[marc garrett]

'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive.

Evidence of illness enhances case for life.
By Helen Pearson.

The discovery of a giant virus that falls ill through infection by 
another virus1 is fuelling the debate about whether viruses are alive.

"There's no doubt this is a living organism," says Jean-Michel Claverie, 
a virologist at the the CNRS UPR laboratories in Marseilles, part of 
France's basic-research agency. "The fact that it can get sick makes it 
more alive."

Giant viruses have been captivating virologists since 2003, when a team 
led by Claverie and Didier Raoult at CNRS UMR, also in Marseilles, 
reported the discovery of the first monster. The virus had been isolated 
more than a decade earlier in amoebae from a cooling tower in Bradford, 
UK, but was initially mistaken for a bacterium because of its size, and 
was relegated to the freezer.

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