Viruses

Adenovirus with icosahedral diagram

Main article: Virus
Whether or not viruses should be considered as alive is a controversial question.
They are most often considered as just replicators rather than forms of life; but
sometimes the ability to replicate is considered as the crucial property of life.[25]
They have been described as "organisms at the edge of life,"[26] since they possess
genes, evolve by natural selection,[27][28] and replicate by creating multiple copies
of themselves through self-assembly. However, viruses do not metabolize and they
require a host cell to make new products. Virus self-assembly within host cells has
implications for the study of the origin of life, as it may support the hypothesis that
life could have started as self-assembling organic molecules.[29][30][31]