Monkeys in Clothes

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Random Rant: Viruses and the Definition of Life

I’ll apologize in advance for the slow speed of my posting - I would like the posts on each of the topics listed in my previous entry to be reasonably researched and thought-out, so their publication is dependent on the amount of spare time I have - which hasn’t been very abundant lately. I do have other science-y but not necessarily monkey-related rants every now and then, however, and this is one of them.

Though I’m sure this debate is not new, I have noticed it cropping up lately in the various science forums I visit - are viruses alive? There have been rather vicious arguments on both sides and my opinion of it is this: I fail to see the point in asking this question at all. In fact, the continued vehemence of some of the debaters is getting kind of irritating.

Will the answer to this question have serious repercussions in the study of viruses and/or any field of biology which is influenced by them? No. If someone can give me an example to the contrary, I’d love to hear it. As far as classification goes, since viruses (most likely) descend from the same lineage of organic molecules that gave rise to life on this planet, and have evolving nucleotide sequences by which their phylogenetic relatedness to other forms of life can be evaluated, they can most certainly be given in a place in the taxonomy of organisms. Whether we decide to call them “alive” or not does not change this fact. Whether we decide to call them “alive” or not does not change the manner in which they function, and does not effect their profound impact on biological study as a whole.

In fact, does drawing the line between life and non-life somewhere in the lineage of organic compounds that lead to life as we know it have any functional significance? Even further, is the exact definition of life solidly agreed upon by the vast majority of biological scientists? The answer to both questions is, I think, no. In my opinion, only those distinctions that have functional significance should be honored with a technical scientific term. Granted, I understand that given the complexities of biological systems and the limits of our current knowledge this isn’t always possible, but it should be the ideal that science strives toward nonetheless. I have no problem drawing the lines between naked self-replicating molecules and protocells, for instance. I have no problem drawing the line between replicators that have their own autonomous metabolism and those that do not, for instance. But the arbitrary nature of the term “life,” not to mention the fuzziness of its definition, renders any arguments about whether or not viruses are alive is a simple waste of energy.

I propose that we radically re-think what the word “life” should mean in the scientific sense, or else find another word to replace it when it comes to classification of “living” things. Let’s throw out that ultimately anthropocentric idea that life consists of beings that can wiggle and jiggle around. That which is alive is that which descends from that single organic origin billions of years ago. It is the monophyletic group to which humans, bacteria, viruses, and even those protocells and naked replicators all belong. To study anything from this group is to study biology - to study life.

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Sneak Peek

As I mentioned before, I’m a forgetful person, and because of that I like to make lists to help me remember things. They also do wonders for helping me organize the rat’s nest of thoughts that is usually spinning around in my head. So I present to you a list (subject to change) of posts that will be upcoming in this blog (in no particular order):

1. Understanding Human Behavior from an Evolutionary Standpoint (but this one WILL be first.)
2. The Coexistance of Cooperation and Competition in Group Life (trying saying THAT five times fast!)
3. Homosexuality as a Natural Component of Human Behavior
4. High School (aka, Hairless Monkey Captive Zoo Population)
5. Morality and Emotions
6. The Evolution of Mars (as in, Men Are From) and Venus (as in, Women are From). (A personal favorite of mine.)
7. Human Variability and Flexibility - Alternative Strategies

From time to time I may also blog about some peer reviewed research that I think relates to our monkey hijinks. And, though this may be a little premature, if anyone has any specific questions they’re curious about, I’d be happy to address them as well as I can.

Stay tuned!

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Opening Remarks

I’ve thought often about starting my own blog wholly devoted to science-y thoughts, and gave it a failed attempt on livejournal (though that was originally intended for rants - er - contemplations on my grad school apps). At first I thought that most of my posts in such a blog would probably revolve around linking to other people’s cool blog posts and articles etc, and would lack the originality that would truly justify making a whole new blog for myself.

But today I realized that I have all sorts of original science running around inside my head; well, original-ish, at least. As I mention in my blog description I plan to spend my life researching primate behavior and how it evolved. Even though I know that I still have a LOT to learn in my chosen field, I feel that even the little knowledge I have right now consistently informs and changes the way I view the behavior of the people around me. I look at the people and behaviors in my day to day life and I muse about them in terms of their possible evolutionary history, of their adaptive benefits and costs, of their interactions with the new (in terms of evolutionary time lines) environment of a human-dominated Earth, and more. Though I’m sure other people have thought and researched and written about these things, I can write my own take on them and hopefully offer an interesting insight or two.

I will attempt to carefully record my references for my current base of knowledge in this subject, though I may have slip ups now and then if I don’t remember exactly where I learned this or that tidbit of information. And as an early warning, my memory for details like that isn’t very good. But I’ll try! I plan to keep a running list of references listed on this blog, to aid me in this endeavor.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope I don’t bore you too much.