Space Ship based Hydroponics

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by malloyd

You are quite right. You should immediately stop using organic incorrectly to describe chemicals containing carbon instead of chemicals obtained from things organs.

That's actually reasonable. I always thought that originally organic was meaning 'chemicals that are the essential building blocks of organs' and not 'chemicals that are extracted from organs'. Carbon-based is certainly a less ambiguous term.

Originally Posted by malloyd

Seriously, the context isn't the same, organic in the sense of containing carbon simply isn't a legitmate adjective applied to anything but chemicals. This is a perfectly common feature of adjectives. If I describe something as a "hot isotope", or a "hot selling hot pink hot outfit", I don't necessarily expect it will burn my fingers if I pick it up. It's mildly irritating sometimes, but probably an unavoidable consequence of metaphors and language change.

*sigh* I see the last, vague meaning to be an abomination.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

That's actually reasonable. I always thought that originally organic was meaning 'chemicals that are the essential building blocks of organs' and not 'chemicals that are extracted from organs'. Carbon-based is certainly a less ambiguous term.

Actually, its original meaning is more like "stuff extracted from living things, which may not be the domain of the same science as those "chemicals"." When the term was coined people didn't *know* what organic stuff was made of, and it was possible to believe it wasn't the same as the inorganic ones - elan vital wasn't *always* quack science. The modern equivalent might well be closer to "biochemistry" than what's called "organic chemistry" now. Or perhaps to creationist rhetoric about unsynthesizable biomolecules (you know "scientists can't make sugar..." though that's been false for a very long time now) and irreducable complexity.