Why soap works so well on most viruses
> The soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and "dies", or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive.<p>I always presumed that viruses, similar to other microorganisms, are alive. Until reading the above quote, I had never considered the idea there was any question about this. I was intrigued by the concept that they many not really be alive so looked up the Wikipedia article [1] which says that<p>> Viruses are considered by some to be a life form, because they carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection, although they lack key characteristics (such as cell structure) that are generally considered necessary to count as life. Because they possess some but not all such qualities, viruses have been described as "organisms at the edge of life", and as replicators.<p>One of the Wikipedia references is <i>Are viruses alive? The replicator paradigm sheds decisive light on an old but misguided question</i> [2] which looks at different replication mechanisms as a continuum rather than a simple  “life vs non-life” dichotomy.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5406846/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5406846/</a>