Scientists argue if viruses are alive or dead. Some scientists argue viruses are alive. Others think that viruses are just dead material and that the cells they infect are the real living things called "virocells" because they don't have a lot of genes.Let's do a comparison. Your cells have around 20,000 genes. A typical bacteria has 7,500 genes. The carona virus around 15, HIV or the flu virus around 10. The number of genes alone is not enough. The tomato has 35,000 genes. What do you think? Are they alive or dead?
