Most Read This Week In Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord. The con Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries.

Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. Nature may refer to the general realm of various types of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects – the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth, and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness–wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". This more traditional concept of natural things which can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. Depending on the particular context, the term "natural" might also be distinguished from the unnatural, the supernatural, or synthetic.

Nature writing is generally defined as nonfiction prose writing about the natural environment. Nature writing often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world; at the same time, it is frequently written in the first person and incorporates personal observations of and philosophical reflections upon nature. ...more

Most Read This Week Tagged "Nature"

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

The Wild Robot Protects (The Wild Robot, #3)

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon

The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature

Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm (Diddly Squat, #1)

River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave (Caldecott Honor)

The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda

Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days

When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside

Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization

Mystery in Rocky Mountain National Park (National Park Mystery #1)

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Quotes Tagged “Nature”

“ Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. ...more ”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

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“ Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. ...more ”
― Robert Frost

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