Quarks are the smallest OBSERVED items in the universe. Bacteria and viruses are the smallest living things (and there are LOTS of them!)
Take a look at this website – my uncle sent it to me a while ago because he thought I would find it interesting and I think it is brilliant! See if you can find Quarks 🙂 http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?bordercolor=white
A few years ago we thought we knew roughly what the universe was made of. But the sums don’t work out anymore so people talk about “dark energy” and ‘dark matter”. One of the most important things in science is recognizing what we don’t know.
Whether viruses are alive depends on your definition of ‘alive’. That’s because they can only reproduce(make more of themselves) with the help of (and inside) another living cell. But they do so very cleverly and to me they count as ‘alive’.
There are even smaller infectious things than viruses, called prions. They are just proteins. They cause ‘mad cow disease’ and similar diseases, and can also form more of themselves. Most people would agree that they are not ‘alive’ though.
Comments
Jonathan commented on :
I like Samantha’s answers. But are viruses living?
Jonathan commented on :
A few years ago we thought we knew roughly what the universe was made of. But the sums don’t work out anymore so people talk about “dark energy” and ‘dark matter”. One of the most important things in science is recognizing what we don’t know.
Anna commented on :
Whether viruses are alive depends on your definition of ‘alive’. That’s because they can only reproduce(make more of themselves) with the help of (and inside) another living cell. But they do so very cleverly and to me they count as ‘alive’.
There are even smaller infectious things than viruses, called prions. They are just proteins. They cause ‘mad cow disease’ and similar diseases, and can also form more of themselves. Most people would agree that they are not ‘alive’ though.