Are viruses technically organisms or not?
A quick Google search query for the term; are viruses organisms?, reveals various conflicting and somewhat inconclusive arguments & opinions from a range of sources. (Examples provided below).
Note: These answers are mostly opinion-based and inconclusive; falling short of the Stack Exchange community's quality control standards.
Let me be clear: I am not seeking opinions, or debate; but rather definitive answers supported by facts.
Wikipedia | Organism.
The most common argument in support of viruses as living organisms is their ability to undergo evolution and replicate through self-assembly...
Some scientists argue that viruses neither evolve, nor self- reproduce.
~ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OrganismEncyclopedia of Life | What is a Virus?
A virus is a microscopic organism that can replicate only inside the cells of a host organism...
Viruses infect all types of organisms, including animals and plants, as well as bacteria and archaea.
~ http://eol.org/info/458Virology Blog | Are Viruses Living? Therefore, viruses are not living things...
So technically speaking they are non- living organisms.
~ http://www.virology.ws/2004/06/09/are-viruses-living/Popular Science | Are Viruses Alive? New Evidence Says Yes.
Viruses seem to carry out only one life process, reproduction, but even then, individual viruses don't carry translational machinery, namely, the proteins needed to read their DNA and RNA and build new viruses. They invade a cell and hijack its genetic tools to do it for them...
But within the last decade, developments in virology have started to reveal more and more that viruses might in fact be alive...One was the discovery of mimiviruses; giant viruses with large genomic libraries that are even bigger than some bacteria. (To put this in perspective, some viruses, like the Ebola virus, have as few as seven genes.) Some of these giants have genes for the proteins that are required for translation—those readers of DNA and RNA that in turn build new viruses...
This throws the lack of translational machinery argument for classifying them as nonliving on its head.
~ http://www.popsci.com.au/science/medicine/are-viruses-alive-new-evidence-says-yes,409690Science Daily | Virus.
A virus is a microscopic particle that can infect the cells of a biological organism...
At the most basic level, viruses consist of genetic material contained within a protective protein coat called a capsid; the existence of both genetic material and protein distinguishes them from other virus-like particles such as prions and viroids...
It has been argued extensively whether viruses are living organisms...Most virologists consider them non-living, as they do not meet all the criteria of the generally accepted definition of life...
They are similar to obligate intracellular parasites as they lack the means for self-reproduction outside a host cell, but unlike parasites, viruses are generally not considered to be true living organisms...
A primary reason is that viruses do not possess a cell membrane or metabolise on their own - characteristics of all living organisms.
~ https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/virus.htm
