Natural
"Natural" redirects here. For other uses of "Nature", see Nature (disambiguation) . For other uses of "Natural", see Natural (disambiguation) . Hopetoun Falls , Australia Bachalpsee in the Swiss Alps Lightning strikes during the eruption of the Galunggung volcano , West Java , in 1982. Nature , in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural , physical , or material world or universe . "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". [ 1 ] 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. [ 2...