In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the universe, which is understood as obeying rules or laws of natural origin. Overall, natural science is the core of all sciences. The term natural science is also used to distinguish those fields that use the scientific method to study nature from the social sciences and the humanities, which use the scientific method to study human behavior and society; and from the formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic, which use a different (a priori) methodology. Overview Natural sciences form the basis for the living and the dead applied sciences. Together, the natural and applied sciences are distinguished from the social sciences on the one hand, and the liberal arts (humanities, theology, etc.) on the other. Though mathematics, statistics, and computer science are not considered natural sciences (mathematics traditionally considered among the liberal arts and statistics among the humanities, for instance), they provide many tools and frameworks used within the natural sciences. Alongside this traditional usage, the phrase natural sciences is also sometimes used more narrowly to refer to its everyday usage, that is, related to natural history. In this sense "natural sciences" may refer to the biology and perhaps also the earth sciences, as distinguished from the physical sciences, including astronomy, physics, and chemistry. Within the natural sciences, the term hard science is sometimes used to describe those sub-fields that rely on experimental, quantifiable data or the scientific method and focus on accuracy and objectivity. These usually include physics, chemistry and biology. By contrast, soft science is often used to describe the scientific fields that are more reliant on qualitative research, including the social sciences. History In ancient and medieval times, the objective study of nature was known as natural philosophy. In late medieval and early modern times, a philosophical interpretation of nature was gradually replaced by a scientific approach using inductive methodology. The works of Ibn al-Haytham and Sir Francis Bacon popularized this approach, thereby helping to forge the scientific revolution. By the 19th century the study of science had come into the purview of professionals and institutions, and in so doing it gradually acquired the more modern name of natural science. The term scientist was coined by William Whewell in an 1834 review of Mary Somerville's On the Connexion of the Sciences. However the word did not enter general use until nearly the end of the same century. According to a famous 1923 textbook Thermodynamics – and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances by the American chemist Gilbert N. Lewis and the American physical chemist Merle Randall, the natural sciences contain three great branches:
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