Carrying on from the original question (are viruses alive) and looking
at Mario Vaneechoutte's definition, how do people feel about 'alive' for
the BSE agent. At this stage it looks to be a variant protein form that
perpetuates its structure by altering non-variant forms (the ultimate in
political conversions). One would have to suppose that the variant form
arose in some way and has since perpetuated itself.
I may burn in hell for continuing this discussion. I start to struggle
at these levels, i can make a case either way as far as
living/non-living goes..
Mike O'Hara
