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

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

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

This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History

The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love

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

I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization

The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present

Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

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

Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes that Dot Our Planet (Haunted Hydrology)

North Sun, or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

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

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

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

Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail

No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay

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

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Quotes Tagged “Nature”

“ Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

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“ The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all tro ...more ”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

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