1) In
chemistry, a term used to describe any molecule held together by a chain of carbon atoms.
2) Used to describe the characteristics of a living system (for example a creature's body or an entire habitat) consisting of smoothly running interacting parts and shaped by the processes of Darwinian evolution.
3) As an analogy in the creative process, used to describe a
work such as a novel or movie script made in such a way that the various parts developed as they were written/painted/
whatever, one from another, rather than sticking rigidly to a preconceived plan.
4) In popular
culture, a term applied in line with the most rabid intentions of New Age pseudoscience, ultimately from the mouths of
people who would like to have scientists burned at the stake. Much favoured by
people who use chemical as an unqualified snarl word. Artificial fertilisers are decried as poison, despite the fact that they contain the same chemical compounds that plants derive from "natural" fertilisers; if these compounds were real poisons, our biosphere would have been in serious doo-doo
long ago. Anything coming from a
lab is allegedly ipso facto evil and foul, even if its molecular structure is identical to that of compounds found in Nature. Genetic engineering is
seen as the foul left
hand of Satan, based on arguments that are about as rational as those for the existence of the fellah downstairs, too. Organic farming is held by its propagandists to be the farming of the future ... and it might be, at least if the human population of the Earth drops by 99 percent. Typical stock in trade arguments from the "organic" movement, as elsewhere in the witchypoo "alternative" movement, consist of appeals to
fear, to irrationality and to conspiracy theories about Big Business ... but, such has been the success of the
propaganda campaign over the last few decades,
nobody seems to subject "organic" produce to the same
safety standards. "Organic" production requires far more acreage than conventional farming methods to produce the same yield. It is typically shilled for by celebrities, who after all often have more money than sense and can afford to buy the stuff, and much beloved of fad dieters who
don't eat that much anyway. All in all, one of the movements that make one genuinely fearful for the future of our technological civilisation.
