Hypothetical types of biochemistry in the late 1960s, these machines are often classed as computers (or computer-guided robots) and filed under "silicon-based life", even though the silicon backing matrix of these processors is not nearly as fundamental to their operation as carbon is for "wet life". Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, while poisonous for most life forms on Earth, is incorporated into the biochemistry of some organisms. Some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Fungi and bacteria can produce volatile methylated arsenic compounds. Arsenate reduction and arsenite oxidation have been observed in microbes ("Chrysiogenes arsenatis").
Virus classification refining, and maintaining a universal virus taxonomy. The system shares many features with the classification system of cellular organisms, such as taxon structure. However, this system of nomenclature differs from other taxonomic codes on several points. A minor point is that names of orders and families are italicized, unlike in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Viral classification starts at the level of realm and continues as follows, with the taxon suffixes given in italics: Species names often take the form of "[Disease] virus", particularly for higher plants and animals.