aswan's blog

Often a debate that arises among biologists is whether or not viruses are organisms or fall into their own categorization. Viruses exist alongside almost all designations of organisms, across all domains of life. While the presence of viruses is undoubtedly influential on life on Earth there is still heavy debate as to how to we view them, with arguments on both sides of this debate.   Viruses are quite unique in their physical structure, as they are in essence very simple, consisting of genetic material either DNA or RNA wrapped in a protein capsule. The presence of DNA or RNA in viruses is often used as an argument as to why they could be considered alive as the presence of genetic material and the use of that material to reproduce is a characteristic of life. However, while they may have genetic material and reproduce, viruses cannot reproduce with a host cell to infect. They also do not have the ability to generate their own energy, respond to stimuli (outside of injecting a cell with their genetic material), and nor do they have the cellular structure of what we consider to be life.

The dainty spider fits easily into the small plastic container. I am not sure what species of spider it is, but it seems to very clearly be a spider due to several of its physical characteristics. The main characteristics that identifies this as a spider is the fact that it has eight legs, a feature that applies to many arachnids. It rarely stops moving however it does stay motionless on its webbing which it seamlessly builds at the top of the container via its lower abdomen where it ejects a silky substance. The spider sits on the webbing in a stationary manner to most likely assist in its hunting efforts so as not to disturb potential prey. Physically the spider’s legs are a reddish brown color that each has three to four dark brown spots in nearly the exact same order. The spider’s body is a dark brown bordering on black with several speckles on its back that are a white-yellow color. The speckles are very orderly and move down the spiders abdomen in a vertical direction, they have an almost diamond shape. Its two front legs seem to be the longest and most mobile reaching out when the spider is in motion. The spider has two joints on each leg.

The dainty arachnid fits easily into the small plastic container. I am not sure what the species of spider it is, but it seems to very clearly be a spider due to it's physical characteristics. One of the main characteristics that identifies this as a spider is the fact that it has eight legs, a feature that applies to many arachnids. It rarely stops moving however it does stay motionless on its webbing which it seamlessly builds at the top of the container via its lower abdomen where it ejects a silky substance. The spider sits on the webbing in a stationary manner to most likely assist in its hunting efforts, so as not to disturb potential prey. Physically the spider’s legs are a reddish brown color that each has three to four dark brown spots in nearly the exact same order. The spider’s body is a dark brown bordering on black with several speckles on its back that are a white-yellow color. The speckles are very orderly and move down the spiders abdomen in a vertical direction, they have an almost diamond shape. Its two front legs seem to be the longest and most mobile reaching out when the spider is in motion. Has two joints on each leg, and has speckles on the underbelly of its abdomen.