By now, it should be fairly obvious that the human body is an open system. We may see it as a separate entity from the environment, however, our bodies are no more separate from their exterior than liver cells are from each other. We create definitions and categorize the world for the purpose of expressing ideas and sharing language. Unfortunately, we forget that terminology is only there for pattern recognition and does not necessarily imply the truth. Just like how the scientific method helps us to make sense of the world around us, language is an excellent tool for discovery, but should not be considered reality. In order for us to take the next step in understanding life, we need to keep a firm grip on our current scientific hypotheses while dropping our overconfidence and trust in their factuality. You may not have seen a black swan before, but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist somewhere else in the universe. 

This brings us to the purpose of this page: The biosphere and the many variables that influence it, and by extension, us. 

The biosphere operates in waves and cycles, which are caused by celestial factors such as the moon being locked in a tidal orbit, the amount of light and heat from the sun, the orbit of the planet itself, and a host of other complicated astronomical events. The result is a change in temperature and air pressure, ocean currents, land composition, and the type of life that thrives in those current conditions. These consequences of the universal ebb and flow, as mentioned in The Origin of Everything section, go on to have secondary effects on each other. 

Learning how these cycles operate can both teach us how to prepare for polarizing climates and also the transiency of life and our internal and external environments.