I'm just curious. What about prions?
Tough one. Prions are simply proteins with the unusual ability to force other proteins to conform to their shape, which then gain the ability to do the same to the next protein. I'm not sure we can consider simple replication - and not even self-replication at that - to be the sole consideration of what constitutes "living". Crystals that provide templates for other crystals to grow identical shapes would then be "alive".
Do we need to go down the "what is life?" road here?
Edited by Quetzal, : speling
™ Version 4.2
