If matter can’t be created out of nothing, isn’t technically everything made from natural materials? What makes something synthetic?
In: Chemistry
Even if the atoms are taken from nature their structure ie the molecules will exist in a configuration that we do not find in nature.
Naturally tends to be stuff we find on earth and stuff that animal, plants and other for of life produce.
Synthetic tends to be stuff that we make from natural stuff but the structure of them is not found in nature.
Synthetic can also be when we produce stuff identical to what exists in nature in factories from natural resources.
So you could think of it as found in nature vs made in a factory.
There are types of matter that we do not find in nature because they are radioactive and what was produced in the start and exploding supernovas is not found on earth.
So we produce isotopes of atoms that exist and atoms that we do not find in nature in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. It is still made by protons, neurons, and elections we find in nature or is produced in a nuclear reaction.
Technically you can produce matter with enough energy you can create pairs of particles and antiparticles. But the total amount to matter made that way is a minuscule amount so not exactly relevant for the question.
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