Is There A Living Thing With NO CELLS?

[SgtSlaughter]

My Bio Teacher (Mr. Gregor) will give me an "A" if I can prove that there is a living thing with no cells.
They have to share the characteristics of a living thing. Can anyone help me? No a Virus is not an answer I've tried.
Homeostasis
Organization
Metabolism
Growth
Adaptation to surroundings
Response to stimuli
Reproduction
and Evolution
Try your Best I'll try to report every day.

[Jones]

Not possible. Unless you would go far enough to say a soul is a living thing, or an aura, or something like that.

[mith]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-cellular_life

Other than that, you might want to consider robotic forms of life such as nanobots which don't really exist yet. I think probably your teach was trying to prove a point.

[Draco]

Thats not possible.

[MrMistery]

I've heard of Mimivirus before. It's a virus that has a very basic and incomplete metabolism. But nevertheless it has it. that is why some postulated that maybe, just maybe cells are but what a primitive virus-like organism evolved into
However, currently one of the conditions for something to be called alive is to be made of cells. You will need to earn your A through another method

[Jones]

Yeah but even if it were a nanobot or something like that it's not really living at all. It's just running.

[SgtSlaughter]

Yeah I thought it was easy but it's impossible.
thanks.

[SgtSlaughter]

My info is wrong they need...
-A Universal Genetic Code
-To be able to Reproduce
-To be able to Evolve
-To be able to Growth and Development
-The use of materials Energy
-Respond to their Environment
-Cellular organization
-And to maintain an Internal Stability
thats what my book says anyway.

[Darby]

If that is the actual list, your teacher has set you to fail - "Universal Genetic Code" only exists if you assume that all life on other planets also is DNA-based (kind of like how the U.S. always wins the baseball World Series), which is silly at the start, and cellular organization without cells - what's that even mean?

[SgtSlaughter]

Yes but there is no proof of life on other planets yet. The cellular organization would be the characteristic that would be cast aside.

[MrMistery]

@darby
Well since there is no known life on other planets the definition stands. We have no idea how life would be on other planets, so right now we can only make a definition of the organisms we do know.
However, "Universal Genetic Code" is not such a good remark. There are organisms with slightly different genetic codes, like some species of Tetrahimena, Paramecium and Mycoplasma. I don't think your teacher is arguing that a Paramecium is not alive...

[SgtSlaughter]

Yea probably not.