If viruses are nonliving, why do you think they are covered in the study of biology?
401290
Though considered nonliving they have some characteristics of living beings. They are composed of either DNA or RNA which is a biology subject. Besides they reproduce (though in living host cells) and also mutate. Also because they cause diseases.
304423
Bacteria are self-supporting life forms.  They live.  Viruses are non-living hijackers that have to hijack other cells to live.  They are just DNA bits or possibly RNA, and by themselves they don't do anything.  But they get into cells and re-program the cells to make more viruses, instead of doing whatever that cell was doing before.
570228
There's also cell apoptosis.  infected cells put out a self-destruct signal so the virus can't reproduce.  its actually what i work on, with herpes
848216
A virus does not fulfill the minimal criteria of life.\nA virus is a chemical construct, as others had said before, it is not capable of reproducing itself.\nA chromosome is a very large collection of chemicals, it may be very similar to a virus. It is part of a living organism, by itself, it is not. \nA virus may 'attack' cells and force them to replicate itself, a chromosome doesn't do that; it doesn't have to. You could think of a chromosome as a virus having found its perfect spot; it no longer has to invade cells...
68976
if you define a creature a living thing then it is a bacteria, viruses don't live, they use other life to reproduce.\nIf creature means visible thing crawling around, I have no idea, maybe an insect or other arthropods.
232534
Can't be a virus  as one of the seven classical characteristics of life is assimilation of nutrients and viruses just don't do that. They hijack healthy cells in an organism and make them replicate the virus which runs across another characterisic of life viz. the ability to reproduce. I'd say it has to be a single cell organism of some sort but wish I could be more specific.
49353
imbaord: the only thing sadder than thinking that the notion of the human race being a virus is deep is to steal that notion from the Matrix and pass it off as your own.  Get an original and meaningful thought, please.  Humans are not destroying the world, they're changing it.  Did you know that before the evolution of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere?  Oxygen was destructive.  Reactive metals like iron used to exist everywhere in their reduced forms, but the new surge of oxygen destroyed those metals are turned them all to rust.  Metals precipitated out of the water, turning into a non-biodegradable form of crud that layered all the ocean floors.  The oxygen was destructive to virtually every form of life that existed before that time, and an enormous percentage of all organisms were made extinct.  BUT! Evolution moved on from there, and new organisms that can use oxygen for energy flourished.  The oxygen became such an abundant part of the atmosphere that it rose upwards, was changed by the incident UV light, and became a screen that sheilded the surface from these UV rays.  These two effects made life on land as we know it suddenly possible when before it was not.  Change, even destructive change, isn't necessarily a terrible thing--it's all a matter of perspective.  Evolution is a powerful thing.\n\nViruses are like living things in many ways, but they are not living things, and I don't care about 10 points, but the simple fact is that the virus is non-living.
517165
Viruses are not free-living...they depend on the host cell machinery to keep them "alive" and allow them to replicate.  Therefore, the only way to cultivate viruses in the laboratory is to grow them in tissue/cell cultures.  You can then allow the tissue/cell culture to incubate and isolate the viruses at a later time.\n\nI don't know what viruses in particular you're asking about, but if you are trying to grow bacteriophage, you can plate the phage suspension on a lawn of bacteria and allow plaques (areas of clearing where the phage have killed the bacteria) to form and then cultivate the viruses from there.
653830
A virus is a submicroscopic parasitic particle that infects cells in biological organisms. The study of viruses is virology.\n\nViruses are obligate intracellular parasites that lack the cellular machinery for self-reproduction. Viruses infect eukaryotes and prokaryotes such as bacteria; viruses infecting prokaryotes are also known as bacteriophages or phages. Typically viruses carry a small amount of genetic material, either in the form of DNA or RNA, but not both, surrounded by some form of protective coat consisting of proteins, lipids, glycoproteins or a combination. The viral genome codes for the proteins that constitute this protective coat, as well as for those proteins required for viral reproduction that are not provided by the host cell.\n\nViruses are non-living particles that can only replicate when an organism reproduces the viral RNA or DNA. Viruses are considered non-living by the majority of virologists because they do not meet all the criteria of the generally accepted definition of life. Among other factors, viruses do not move or metabolize on their own. However, a comprehensive definition of life is still somewhat elusive since some bacteria (considered living) like rickettsia exhibit both characteristics of living and non-living particles.
1064058
Viruses are very hard to kill. Take HIV/AIDS for example.\n\nAt least herpes is not deadly, like AIDS is. I'm sure someday they will find a cure. It might be another 10 years or so, but I believe someday they will find a cure for it.
182551
Because alot of viruses can't live in the warm hot climate. \n\nHell, we can barely live in it.\n\nIt's like this. Ever heard of sperm donations? (sorry I had to use this example, lol) Well, when people donate sperm, they put them in containers and store them in extreme below zero temperatures to keep them alive. Warmth will kill them. Same thing with airborne viruses and other things, although there are exceptions.
35146
As joseflip said, there are treatments to slow down viruses.  Do a study on viruses; it's fascinating.  They're not even alive!  Purely biologically mechanical (mindless and instinctless; they just do what they do), they do their work by invading cells, multiplying, and going out to other cells...very sneaky.  Because if you want to destroy the virus...you more than likely have to destroy cells as well, and that's where our problem lies.\nThe best example, I think, is HIV.  There are several treatments to keep this horrible disease "at bay," but I *don't think* there are *cures* for any viral diseases.
20974
Even among biologists, there is some debate about what constitutes being "alive", mainly because of viruses. There are four main criteria which are generally accepted. A living organism should:\n\nHave some kind of metabolism (processing "food" into "waste")\nGrow, change or evolve in its lifetime and generations\nInteract with its environment\nReproduce\n\nI would add to this that living things should have a determinate lifespan (that is, they die) and they should use DNA or RNA as a genetic template.
645989
No- a virus and other bacteria need certain requirements to stay alive, so cannot stay alive outside the body for very long, and if blood is dry, it cannot survive.
868754
biology is the study of living things
932927
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes such as bacteria and certain algaes. Viruses, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied[1].\n\nAlthough much is now known in the field of microbiology, advances are being made regularly. The most common estimates suggest that we have studied only about 1% of all of the microbes in any given environment. Thus, despite the fact that over three hundred years have passed since the discovery of microbes, the field of microbiology is clearly in its infancy relative to other biological disciplines such as zoology, botany and entomology.\n\nYou could get more information from the link below...
967520
Bacteria are capable of living alone. Viruses are said to be alive only when inside a living cell.\n\nBacteria have cell organelles and show life activities. Virus are just a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a sheath of protein and can only show reproduction while in a living cell.\n\nBacteria are intercellular organisms( they live in-between cells ). Viruses are intracellular organisms ( they live within/inside cells )\n\nThere are many useful bacteria, that help in processes like nitrification and lactification. Viruses on the other hand are always disease causing. In fact, the term 'Virulesence', which is used for a disease causing organism, is derived from the word Virus'