Viruses are living organisms Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Viruses are living organisms - Research Proposal Example Viruses are not as alive as bacteria because bacteria are proven to contain DNA which is missing in Viruses. However Viruses are not dead. They may lie dormant for certain period of time and then become active when they find a host. Thus we can say that viruses are very close to life and are only looking for a suitable host. Once the host is found, viruses can multiply rapidly just like bacteria. Mahy (1998) explains, "Outside a living cell, viruses are unable to multiply; they must enter a living cell - called the host cell - to reproduce. Thus, viruses exist at the threshold of life, and their multiplication is intricately bound up with cellular processes of the host. For this reason, antibiotics, which stop the multiplication of bacteria, cannot be used against viruses, since most substances that stop virus multiplication will also kill the host cells." As mentioned above, another important distinction lies in the presence or absence of DNA that distinguishes viruses from other living organisms like plants and bacteria. For an organism to qualify as living, it must contain both DNA and RNA. DNA is responsible for heredity while RNA aids in cellular functions. In most viruses, only RNA is found while DNA is missing. But interestingly scientists have found some viruses that contain DNA and no RNA. In other words, viruses are still not living organisms in the way bacteria are because to qualify as a living thing, they must have both RNA and DNA. Absence of either one can mean sub-life existence. Viruses are also different on account of the genes present in them. It must be argued that living organisms need a large number of genes to qualify as living things. Based on this presumption, we can say that even the smallest of bacteria are more alive than viruses. This is explained by Oldstone (2000) in these words: "Viruses have relatively few genes compared with other organisms. Measles virus, yellow fever virus, poliomyelitis virus, Lassa fever virus, Ebola virus, Hantavirus, as well as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), have fewer than ten genes each, whereas a smallpox virus may contain between 200 and 400 genes. These numbers compare with 5,000 to 10,000 genes for the smallest bacteria and approximately 80,000 to 100,000 genes for a human." (p. 9) These are the reasons why Viruses are neither called dead nor alive. They however qualify for a near-alive status because once they find a host; they can multiply with amazing rapidity and can suddenly become very active. In their dormant state however, they are nothing more than a speck of nucleic acid material. It must then be concluded that viruses cannot be called alive in the true sense of the word though they are almost-alive and act like parasites waiting for a suitable host. It must also be mentioned here that a living organism is one that is not dependent on other organism for its survival. Viruses meet this requirement to an extent because while they depend on a host for multiplication and activity, they do not exactly die when they are left alone. Instead they stay dormant till they find an organism to live upon. "Viruses never really die. If viruses are not actively reproducing, they can indefinitely maintain an inert state." (Goudsmit, p. 5) It would thus not be wrong to say that viruses maintain an almost-alive state but are not as living as bacteria or some other organisms capable of reproduction. They do not both DNA

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 35

Economics - Essay Example Neoclassical synthesis was a post-war economic concept which combined the Keynesian macroeconomics and microeconomics of the neoclassical school of thought (Mankiw, 2006). Paul Samuelson personified and popularized the neoclassical synthesis by trying to make a solid mathematical foundation of economics. This has led to the current domination of neoclassical synthesis in mainstream economics. The mainstream economics combines the supply and demand models of markets with Keynesian theory (Mankiw, 2006). It provides that costs and opportunities play an important part in shaping the decision making process of economic agents. For example, the consumer theory of demand is a model of mainstream economics which determines how prices (costs) affect quantity demanded of a particular product. In this case, decision makers (e.g. consumers) will choose products with lower costs or prices; hence affecting quantity demanded. One of the theoretical assumptions of neoclassical microeconomics is the allocation of scarce resources among unlimited wants. It is assumed that people develop rational preferences of identifiable outcomes that can be valued. Consumers/households maximize utility while firms maximize profits. Provided that they get access to sufficient information, individuals make independent decisions and act independently. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply are the main theoretical foundations of Keynesian macroeconomics (Mankiw, 2006). The IS-LM model is the basic theory of aggregate demand. When these two classes of theoretical foundations (neoclassical microeconomics and Keynesian macroeconomics) are combined, they result in short-run economic fluctuations which form the basis of mainstream economics. The new neoclassical synthesis borrows the general equilibrium theory from the new classical models. The microeconomic foundations of preferences and constraints also form the basis of the