Define a computer virus.How is it different from biological virus?
Answers
Explanation:
Everybody knows the term “virus” and it is often associated with a computer virus.
A biological virus is a microscopic infectious agent. First viruses are not life forms. They are not ‘alive’ but they possess some significant characteristic that differentiates them from inert matter as well.
They are referred to also as pathogens meaning that they are defined as a disease. That disease is their “raison d’être”, their goal, and their mission.
Viruses can potentially infect any life form, including bacteria (which are also microscopic).
Their nature is mysterious and it’s unclear where and how they have been created during the evolutionary processes.
Viruses share several common characteristics with life but miss many important and fundamental points. For example viruses do not possess cell structures. They are therefore at the ‘edge of life’.
Viruses are often named as replicators, because they are able to duplicate themselves, like a ‘self-photocopy’. Their functioning is therefore different from cells and bacteria which are using Phagocytosis, e.g. absorbing a nearby cell or bacteria.
To that respect viruses try to duplicate while cells or bacteria try to merge.
The replication mechanism in viruses is fundamentally stranger to life. Viruses ‘hack’ cells to force them to duplicate the virus genetic code. They predate the cell mechanism and use it for their own purpose: self-replication.
Viruses are made of genetic material, proteins, and lipids and they cannot spread without vectors, which vectors vary greatly: animals, water, air, blood, etc.
Once again, a virus is not a living organism while a bacteria is a living organism. Therefore the behavior of viruses is to be understood at a different biological scale than life itself.
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