Viruses in the Tree of Life...

There is a constant argument between scientists today on whether viruses can be considered living or non-living. The small article that I read simply gives "Life" to the idea that viruses might actually be living, and also it shows how much we don't really know about viruses after all. It's proven that there is obviously much more to viruses than we currently know, especially given the fact that at one given time in the past viruses were said to have no action in translation; it has now been proven recently that some bigger viruses have genes that are essential for translation. I am still torn by this idea of whether these organisms are living or non-living, given the information presented in this article has now shed more light upon the stance on identifying viruses as living. More facts about how there are certain bacteria and fungi that live due to a parasitic relationship, just like viruses do, justify another reason for classifying them as living also. My favorite part of this article is probably the part where they were able to identify the related protein folds between viruses and organisms currently present in the tree of life. I can somewhat see where they found that protein folds can help better identify viruses and their relationships in between different viruses and how they possibly could fit into the tree of life, sometime in the near future.

Here is where the article was found:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150925142658.htm

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Study adds to evidence that viruses are alive." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 September 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150925142658.htm>.