Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences: a branch of Science that deals with understanding nature.
The five major branches of Natural sciences:
Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science and Physics!

I believe physics to be the most basic natural science (doesn't mean it's easy) and that other natural sciences build upon it.

Natural sciences are great!

Chemistry teacher: ...so basically, we've got aqueous HF as a product.
Student: What? WHY?!
Chemistry teacher: That's the physics of it!

by zawazawa December 18, 2012

Hard Problem of the Natural Sciences

The tension between reductionism and emergence. The natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology) succeed by breaking things down into constituent parts. But the most interesting phenomena—life, consciousness, ecosystems—are emergent properties of complex systems that seem irreducible. The hard problem is: Can a "theory of everything" that only describes the most fundamental particles ever explain why a heart breaks or a forest thrives? Or does each level of complexity (chemical, biological, ecological) require its own irreducible laws and explanations, making the reductionist dream incomplete?

Example: You can have a perfect, complete physics textbook describing quarks and forces, a perfect chemistry textbook on bonding, and a perfect biology textbook on genetics. None of them will contain the chapter "How to Be a Brave Wolf Protecting Its Pack." That behavior emerges from a dizzying hierarchy of systems. The hard problem: The natural sciences are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the reductionist belief that everything is just particles. The hard place is the obvious reality that "just particles" cannot account for meaning, purpose, or complex agency without something being lost in translation. Hard Problem of the Natural Sciences.

by Enkigal January 24, 2026