Atmospheric science is foundational to our understanding of climate change, explaining how carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are responsible for rising temperatures - and estimating how much (and how soon) we need to cut these emissions to preserve a habitable planet. However, the physical sciences are also vital to understanding and solving critically important challenges faced by society.įor example, geology is essential to natural resource exploration, guiding the effort of mining companies to find raw materials like coal and copper. Knowing the way the geology of the planet has evolved over billions of years, or understanding the magical-seeming processes that drive chemical reactions, can be fascinating and inherently satisfying. Many people go into the physical sciences out of a simple love for the material. Each of these disciplines within the physical sciences has a different approach to studying the individual elements and processes that characterize their particular area of focus.

This truly vast topic encompasses a diverse range of more specific subfields including chemistry, geology, astronomy, physics, oceanography, and more.

Physical science explains all that we know about the workings of the natural world, from the deepest core of Earth to the farthest reaches of space - and from microscopic atoms to the entire atmospheric system of the planet.

What is physical science