Question: What is a virus

Tom Speight answered on 10 Nov 2017:

Viruses are pretty crazy. They’re not actually a cell the same way we say a bacteria is a cell. Viruses are just an infectious “thing” with one drive, to infect other cells, replicate themselves inside of their host and then break out when there’s too many and go in search of another host. You can tell they’re a big inspiration for a lot of science fiction kind of stuff! What they’re made up of is: some form of genetic material like DNA which is coated in proteins called a capsid. On top of that, to make them pretty durable, viruses have an outer layer of lipids coating the capsid. This keeps them safe from falling apart whilst they’re in search of a new cell to infect.