The virus on its way to Germany

The chemical nature of the virus

Do viruses actually constitute a separate category from bacteria? Are they living or non-living organisms?

The first important step towards revealing the virus's true nature was to isolate it. In 1935 the American scientist Wendell Stanley succeeded in doing this in a crystallisation process. He claimed that the isolated virus consisted of pure protein. He believed that the reproduction of the virus that occurs at the end of an infection was a kind of self-accelerating chemical process (auto-catalysis). Stanley was thus credited with the "discovery of the chemical nature of viruses". It caused a stir throughout the world, including Berlin.