The person throughout his history was surrounded by the nature. If first people treated natural objects only in terms of their practical applicability, then subsequently interest developed into formation of so-called natural sciences within which ideas of the structure of the nature began to be formed.
Emergence of natural sciences
Already the first scientists investigating the nature surrounding the person included it in a circle of the scientific interests. From a century by a century there was a development of knowledge of the nature, the new knowledge and the facts demanding judgment and systematization were accumulated. But only in the 18th century the name "natural sciences" which were meant as all areas of knowledge which were engaged in studying natural objects and phenomena was entered into use.
The natural sciences then did not stand apart to the certain area of science yet, but at began to be divided into several independent disciplines. The research object peculiar to each branch of science was the basis for division. The sphere of consideration joined various forms of matter, Earth, the Universe, various manifestations of life.
The real break in natural sciences was made after a statement in the scientific world of bases of materialistic outlook and a dialectic method.
Natural sciences in the modern system of knowledge of the world
The first group of natural sciences was made by physics and chemistry and also the industries, adjacent to them. The biology and its sections – zoology and botany became the certain area of natural sciences. The group of sciences about the person included his physiology, anatomy, various theories about origin, development and heredity. Scientists scoop physical data on the planet from data of geography, geology and mineralogy, meteorology. The space and the Universe are studied by astronomical and astrophysical disciplines. Each natural science has own methods of a research. For many sciences they initially had descriptive character. Only later the scientific methodology included mathematics and philosophy, in particular, dialectic and system methods. As a rule, today natural sciences are not limited only to data collection, their description and systematization.
The data received in science become base for applied researches and establishment of communications between different sciences.
If "clean" natural science researches are aimed first of all at identification of the facts and regularities peculiar to subject to consideration, then applied researches pursue the practical aims. Data which are obtained by scientists in the field of physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences find broad application in production, agriculture and medicine. And researches of space objects allow to make flights in near-earth space already today and to send devices to other planets of the Solar system.