Sketching on Viruses

“Viruses stand on the borders of the living and non-living. On the one hand, they have all the attributes of a living thing: they are born, assimilate, die and, to please those who are accustomed to seeing movement in the living, move. But in chemical laboratories viruses are sometimes transformed into powder, which in appearance doesn’t differ much from a mineral that has been ground into powder. And this "viral" powder is not born, does not assimilate, does not die and, of course, if it moves, then only for the same reasons as granulated sugar. But once the virus powder, sleeping in a “dead sleep” for a long time, longer than the “sleeping princess”, is “transferred” into a living environment, for example, tobacco mosaic virus is put onto tobacco leaves, the powder in the plant cells will turn into tailed living beings. If a virus is alive, why doesn't it die when it turns into a corpse? If it is lifeless, why, having resurrected, it lives like all living things?” (N.K. Koltsov)