An organism is defined in a medical dictionary as any living thing that functions as an individual . Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been proposed to define what an organism is. Among the most common is that an organism has autonomous reproduction , growth , and metabolism . This would exclude viruses , despite the fact that they evolve like organisms. Other problematic cases include colonial organisms ; a colony of eusocial insects is organised adaptively, and has germ-soma specialisation , with some insects reproducing, others not, like cells in an animal's body. The body of a siphonophore , a jelly-like marine animal, is composed of organism-like zooids , but the whole structure looks and functions much like an animal such as a jellyfish , the parts collaborating to provide the functions of the colonial organism.
42-454: The German Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz (Weapons of War Control Act) controls the production, handover, sale, trade, acquisition and transport of goods, resources, and organisms that are meant for war. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the law suddenly became very relevant, because the German policy on sending weapons is in part based on this law. The 1949 German Basic Law for
84-579: A SPD-Greens minority government. In Australia , a "traffic light coalition" could refer to a coalition between the Labor Party , the Australian Greens and Australian Democrats . Though such a coalition was never formed, as Labor and the Greens never formed a coalition until the 2010 Tasmanian state election. However, following the 2001 Australian Capital Territory election , Labor formed
126-499: A coalition following the 2001 Berlin state election were not successful; likewise, preliminary talks after the 2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election led to no result. A traffic light coalition was formed in Rhineland-Palatinate following the 2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state election . The 2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election marked the first time in German history that an outgoing traffic light coalition
168-541: A deal to implement the coalition, with SPD candidate Olaf Scholz set to become chancellor . The coalition went into effect when Scholz and his cabinet took office on 8 December 2021. However, the coalition collapsed on 6 November 2024 following disagreements between Scholz and his Finance Minister Christian Lindner , the leader of the FDP; after Lindner refused to support the planned 2025 federal budget, Scholz dismissed him and consequently all FDP ministers resigned, leaving
210-547: A different Rüstungsexportkontrollgesetz. Plans are to explicitly prescribe that Germany can help countries that are in armed conflict, based on the values that underpin German foreign policy, the goals of the UN charter, international law, and the fundamental right of self defenses. In the complex matter of sending weapons to Ukraine three different situations can be discerned: Organism The evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann state that "organismality",
252-569: A few enzymes and molecules like those in living organisms, they have no metabolism of their own; they cannot synthesize the organic compounds from which they are formed. In this sense, they are similar to inanimate matter. Viruses have their own genes , and they evolve . Thus, an argument that viruses should be classed as living organisms is their ability to undergo evolution and replicate through self-assembly. However, some scientists argue that viruses neither evolve nor self-reproduce. Instead, viruses are evolved by their host cells, meaning that there
294-414: A list of goods it considers to be weapons: The Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz gives the German government the authority to forbid or permit almost all activities of the German arms industry. Therefore, a policy is needed to give the industry some certainty about what will be allowed. Another law that has such a construction is the außenwirtschaftsgesetz , which also allows to make further regulations to limit
336-534: A long-standing policy of not allowing the export of weapons to countries that are involved in an armed conflict. The proposed Rüstungsexportkontrollgesetz would also forbid this. Within a few days of the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the German government began to send small arms to Ukraine. It is part of a fundamental change in Germany's foreign policy, marked by Olaf Scholz 's 27 February 2022 Zeitenwende speech . This policy change will also lead to
378-558: A minority government supported by the Greens and the Democrats, the closest thing to a "traffic light" coalition ever experienced. In the lead up to the 2024 Tasmanian state election a coalition involving Labor, the Greens and the Jacqui Lambie Network was discussed. The JLN is not a liberal party but rather a big tent populist party. In Austria , the term Ampelkoalition has been borrowed from Germany to describe
420-563: A permit from the federal government. The transport of weapons of war on the territory of the Federal Republic requires a permit. General permits can be issued for things like deliveries to the German army. The export of weapons of war requires a permit. A general permit for export is only possible for exports to certified companies in other member states of the European Union. If the above activities are exercised without
462-568: A process of recombination (a primitive form of sexual interaction ). Traffic light coalition In German politics , a traffic light coalition ( German : Ampelkoalition ) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens . It is named after the parties' traditional colours , respectively red, yellow, and green, matching
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#1732802039901504-966: A theoretical coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), The Greens , and a liberal party. In the 1990s, this referred to the Liberal Forum (LiF). In the 2010s, the term reemerged to describe a theoretical coalition of the SPÖ, Greens, and NEOS – The New Austria , the latter of which is the successor to the Liberal Forum. NEOS's colour is pink , rather than yellow. The Verhofstadt I Government of Belgium , headed by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 1999 to 2003, comprised liberals (the Flemish Liberals and Democrats and French-speaking Liberal Reformist Party ), socialists (the Flemish Socialist Party and
546-445: Is a microorganism such as a protist , bacterium , or archaean , composed of a single cell , which may contain functional structures called organelles . A multicellular organism such as an animal , plant , fungus , or alga is composed of many cells, often specialised. A colonial organism such as a siphonophore is a being which functions as an individual but is composed of communicating individuals. A superorganism
588-401: Is a teleonomic or goal-seeking behaviour that enables them to correct errors of many kinds so as to achieve whatever result they are designed for. Such behaviour is reminiscent of intelligent action by organisms; intelligence is seen as an embodied form of cognition . All organisms that exist today possess a self-replicating informational molecule (genome), and such an informational molecule
630-741: Is a colony, such as of ants , consisting of many individuals working together as a single functional or social unit . A mutualism is a partnership of two or more species which each provide some of the needs of the other. A lichen consists of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria , with a bacterial microbiome ; together, they are able to flourish as a kind of organism, the components having different functions, in habitats such as dry rocks where neither could grow alone. The evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann state that "organismality" has evolved socially, as groups of simpler units (from cells upwards) came to cooperate without conflicts. They propose that cooperation should be used as
672-535: Is an argument for viewing viruses as cellular organisms. Some researchers perceive viruses not as virions alone, which they believe are just spores of an organism, but as a virocell - an ontologically mature viral organism that has cellular structure. Such virus is a result of infection of a cell and shows all major physiological properties of other organisms: metabolism , growth, and reproduction , therefore, life in its effective presence. The philosopher Jack A. Wilson examines some boundary cases to demonstrate that
714-472: Is likely intrinsic to life. Thus, the earliest organisms also presumably possessed a self-replicating informational molecule ( genome ), perhaps RNA or an informational molecule more primitive than RNA. The specific nucleotide sequences in all currently extant organisms contain information that functions to promote survival, reproduction , and the ability to acquire resources necessary for reproduction, and sequences with such functions probably emerged early in
756-538: Is not immediately clear that the law applies. It therefore requires additional rules, like e.g. in the Außenwirtschaftsgesetz. The law offers insufficient control exported production licenses, in particular when they expire. The Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz is also in competition to other laws, especially on the level of the European Union, and it therefore leads to legal uncertainty. Already in April 2021,
798-551: Is the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action . The import and export of weapons is checked by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), e.g. by regularly checking the weapons books Kriegswaffenbuch . Anybody who wants to produce weapons of war has to acquire a permit from the federal government. Anybody who wants to transfer or acquire possession of weapons of war requires
840-592: The 2021 federal election , the SPD emerged as the largest party in the Bundestag, with 25.7%, but did not have enough seats either to govern outright or together with the third place 14.7% Greens. With the SPD and the CDU ruling out a grand coalition with each other, a traffic light coalition was viewed as the most likely outcome by many in the media. On 24 November 2021, the SPD, Greens, and FDP announced that they had reached
882-548: The Ancient Greek ὀργανισμός , derived from órganon , meaning instrument, implement, tool, organ of sense or apprehension) first appeared in the English language in the 1660s with the now-obsolete meaning of an organic structure or organization. It is related to the verb "organize". In his 1790 Critique of Judgment , Immanuel Kant defined an organism as "both an organized and a self-organizing being". Among
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#1732802039901924-681: The Democratic Party (DP) and The Greens in order to oust the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) of the incumbent Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker . This variant on the traffic light coalition is known as a "Gambia coalition" ( German : Gambia-Koalition ; Luxembourgish : Gambia(-)Koalitioun, Gambiakoalitioun ), as the party colours match the flag of the Gambia , and Luxembourg's liberal party (DP) uses blue as its party colour rather than yellow. In Romania
966-403: The federal level with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) traditionally made such a coalition problematic, with former FDP chairman Guido Westerwelle explicitly ruling out this option for the 2009 federal election . Previously, the inconclusive 2005 federal election had produced media speculation about a traffic light coalition, but no such coalition was formed. Following
1008-642: The "defining trait" of an organism. Samuel Díaz‐Muñoz and colleagues (2016) accept Queller and Strassmann's view that organismality can be measured wholly by degrees of cooperation and of conflict. They state that this situates organisms in evolutionary time, so that organismality is context dependent. They suggest that highly integrated life forms, which are not context dependent, may evolve through context-dependent stages towards complete unification. Viruses are not typically considered to be organisms, because they are incapable of autonomous reproduction , growth , metabolism , or homeostasis . Although viruses have
1050-420: The Federal Republic of Germany was heavily influenced by World War II. It therefore got an article 26 with two parts. The first part declared that the preparation of an offensive war was at odds with the constitution and would be made punishable. The second part of article 26 determines that weapons of war may only be produced and traded with the approval of the federal government. A Bundesgesetz has to determine
1092-800: The French-speaking Socialist Party ), and greens (the Flemish Agalev and the French-speaking Ecolo ). However, as the political colours of the liberal parties were blue instead of yellow, it was known as the "purple-green" coalition. Following the 2013 general election in Luxembourg , negotiations started with the aim of forming a three-party coalition government comprising the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP),
1134-432: The availability and proliferation of weapons of war. The mechanism to do this is, is by making the legality of many activities dependent on a government permit Die Genehmigung . Exercising these activities without such a permit is a very serious criminal offense. The Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz declares that the federal government gives and cancel permits, but allows delegation. Therefore, the primary authority for permits
1176-765: The colour sequence of a traffic light ( Ampel ). So far, the only instance of a traffic light coalition on a federal level in Germany has been in Olaf Scholz ' cabinet between 2021 and its collapse over disagreements in November 2024. The term is also used for similar coalitions between social democrats , liberals and greens in other countries . At a state level, early traffic light coalitions occurred in Brandenburg between 1990 and 1994 and in Bremen between 1991 and 1995 . Negotiations to form such
1218-678: The concept of organism is not sharply defined. In his view, sponges , lichens , siphonophores , slime moulds , and eusocial colonies such as those of ants or naked molerats , all lie in the boundary zone between being definite colonies and definite organisms (or superorganisms). Scientists and bio-engineers are experimenting with different types of synthetic organism , from chimaeras composed of cells from two or more species, cyborgs including electromechanical limbs, hybrots containing both electronic and biological elements, and other combinations of systems that have variously evolved and been designed. An evolved organism takes its form by
1260-476: The criteria that have been proposed for being an organism are: Other scientists think that the concept of the organism is inadequate in biology; that the concept of individuality is problematic; and from a philosophical point of view, question whether such a definition is necessary. Problematic cases include colonial organisms : for instance, a colony of eusocial insects fulfills criteria such as adaptive organisation and germ-soma specialisation. If so,
1302-413: The details. The Gesetz über die Kontrolle von Kriegswaffen, abbreviated Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz is the law that article 26 part 2 refers to. It was approved and published in 1961. The Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz has several articles and parts that are indeed aligned with the philosophy of the basic law. The idea is that the internal peace of Germany and peace in general have to be protected by controlling
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1344-422: The evolution of life. It is also likely that survival sequences present early in the evolution of organisms included sequences that facilitate the avoidance of damage to the self-replicating molecule and promote the capability to repair such damages that do occur. Repair of some of the genome damages in these early organisms may have involved the capacity to use undamaged information from another similar genome by
1386-546: The federal government had made a design for a new Rüstungsexportkontrollgesetz (Arms Export Control law). In November 2021 those who thought that the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz did not impose enough limitations on German arms exports could celebrate a success as the Traffic light coalition that was formed at the time, made issuing the new law part of the coalition agreement. Before 2022, Germany had
1428-501: The partially understood mechanisms of evolutionary developmental biology , in which the genome directs an elaborated series of interactions to produce successively more elaborate structures. The existence of chimaeras and hybrids demonstrates that these mechanisms are "intelligently" robust in the face of radically altered circumstances at all levels from molecular to organismal. Synthetic organisms already take diverse forms, and their diversity will increase. What they all have in common
1470-422: The permissions based on the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz and for the permissions based on the außenwirtschaftsgesetz are bundled in one policy document. This makes it clear that there is a single policy for deciding on both permits, but of course these are not the same permit. There are some critics of the effectiveness of the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz. It would be too easy to evade because for many goods and uses it
1512-627: The proliferation of German arms. In the Außenwirtschaftsverordnung paragraph 21–6, the Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle (BAFA) got the authority to make a further regulation. In the "Bekanntmachung über Endverbleibsdokumente nach § 21 Absatz 6 der Außenwirtschaftsverordnung (AWV)" the BAFA stipulates that every arms export requires an End-user certificate which forbids re-export without permission. The policy for both
1554-480: The qualities or attributes that define an entity as an organism, has evolved socially as groups of simpler units (from cells upwards) came to cooperate without conflicts. They propose that cooperation should be used as the "defining trait" of an organism. This would treat many types of collaboration, including the fungus / alga partnership of different species in a lichen , or the permanent sexual partnership of an anglerfish , as an organism. The term "organism" (from
1596-514: The required permit, they constitute criminal offenses. In general the maximum punishment for these activities is five years in prison. The actual punishment is significantly more severe than for acting contrary to the Außenwirtschaftsgesetz. There is a general exclusion for devices, parts, resources and organisms for civilian use. Another exclusion for these things applies when they are used for scientific, health or industrial research in theoretic or applied sciences. The Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz has
1638-612: The same argument, or a criterion of high co-operation and low conflict, would include some mutualistic (e.g. lichens) and sexual partnerships (e.g. anglerfish ) as organisms. If group selection occurs, then a group could be viewed as a superorganism , optimized by group adaptation . Another view is that attributes like autonomy, genetic homogeneity and genetic uniqueness should be examined separately rather than demanding that an organism should have all of them; if so, there are multiple dimensions to biological individuality, resulting in several types of organism. A unicellular organism
1680-635: The term of traffic light coalition has recently been described as a coalition consisting of Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ). After political crisis of 2021 which resulted in the breakup of the center-right coalition between the PNL, the USR and the UDMR, a traffic light government was elected (also called
1722-459: Was co-evolution of viruses and host cells. If host cells did not exist, viral evolution would be impossible. As for reproduction, viruses rely on hosts' machinery to replicate. The discovery of viruses with genes coding for energy metabolism and protein synthesis fuelled the debate about whether viruses are living organisms, but the genes have a cellular origin. Most likely, they were acquired through horizontal gene transfer from viral hosts. There
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1764-469: Was replaced by a renewed traffic light coalition in a state election. Historically, there have been red-green coalitions between the SPD and the Greens (from 1998 to 2005) and social-liberal coalitions between the SPD and the FDP (from 1969 to 1982) in the Bundestag . Despite the common ground on cultural liberalism between the three parties, the FDP's economic liberalism and long association at
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