Question #b18f3

1 Answer
Jun 11, 2017

The debates over whether they are alive or not are still continuing, so they are just lumped with all living things until matters are resolved.

Explanation:

While viruses clearly reproduce and evolve over time, they are essentially, as you said, DNA in a shell. They do nothing but reproduce, but are also clearly not inanimate objects like rocks and air, so they are studied as living things.