Introduction
This speech focuses on a few important aspects within the sphere of biology. Five main characteristics of life define an object as a living creature. First, the living creature responds to the changing features of the environment.
Discussion
For example, if a person tries to catch a hare, it will react by moving. The second characteristic is growth and development – seeds grow into plants, and frog eggs develop into frogs. Then, the living objects produce offspring – reproductions can be as simple as cells dividing into more cells or more complex. Living creatures maintain homeostasis, which means that they have a complex chemistry. For example, a human body remains at the same temperature, which does not depend on the temperature outside the body. Finally, living objects consist of cells, which are the basic units of their function and structure.
The viruses’ structure depends on which nucleic acid is included, which denotes that there are DNA and RNA viruses. Nucleic acids help viruses reproduce, alter cellular functions, and create proteins. DNA or RNA is surrounded by capsids, which are protein shells that protect viruses. Some viruses additionally include outer envelopes that consist of proteins and lipids. These particles are necessary to prevent viruses from external impact.
Viruses are considered living and non-living creatures simultaneously. They are living objects because they can reproduce, even though this feature is only possible within host cells. However, viruses are non-living because they are not cells on their own. Furthermore, viruses do not have the ability to perform homeostasis or metabolism, which is possible for living organisms. This information demonstrates that viruses are controversial creatures that have features of living and non-living objects.
Conclusion
The reductionist approach is more traditional in science and is based on dissecting the biological system into their constituting part for further studying them. However, reductionism is limited because it fails to address the complexity of biological systems and study their components. Therefore, systems biology is focused on biological networks, and health and disease are properties of these changing networks. In this class, the systems biology approach seems more appropriate because it draws specific attention to changing networks and their components.