What is an Organism?

How can I explain and really understand organism?

i was looking up GMO and came to the word organism.


I have always wanted to know how to explain organism to some one else and it may be important to get a better idea for a teaching perspective.





















Organism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Root
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism
http://www.biol.lu.se/cellorgbiol/plantmicrobe/index.html



In biology and ecology, an organism (in Greek organon = instrument) is a living complex adaptive system of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function in some way as a stable whole.


The word "organism" may broadly be defined as an assembly of molecules that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life. However, many sources, lexical and scientific, add conditions that are problematic to defining the word.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an organism as "[an] individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form"[1] This definition problematically excludes non-animal and plant multi-cellular life forms such as some fungi and protista. Less controversially, perhaps, it excludes viruses and theoretically-possible man-made non-organic life forms.

• Organism are molecules that come together as a whole to function as life forms
• They can be good organism that include the salad we eat or they can be bad organism that include E.coli
• Organism are never really independent of an ecosystem
• They are capable of independent reproduction and can exist in systems of life, made of living and dead tissue
• The crab is and example of an organism
• Superorganisms consist of many organisms and ants are the most well know example
• All organisms are classified by the science of taxonomy, which we just learned about
• Organisms are complex chemical reactions that promote reproduction and survival
• All organisms consist of cells
• Organism life span could be as short as one day, while some plants can live thousands of years

I am still unclear how to tie in the Greek word "instrument"

Does any one know - is GMO an organism? (non-organic / life form)