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

All That's Unseen: An Appalachian Memoir

A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love

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

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

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

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

Evergreen Academy (Society of Magical Botanists, #1)

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

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

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

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

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

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization

North Sun, or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

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

The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life

Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

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

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

Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton

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

The Traveler: One Man's Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris

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

Related Genres

Nonfiction
Environment
Outdoors
Plants
Ornithology

Featured News & Interviews

Discover a New Author with These 47 Fall Debut Novels

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Nature”

“ 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

2368 likes

“ 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

2818 likes

More quotes...