text: Only natural processes occur in nature. For thermodynamics, a natural process is a transfer between systems that increases the sum of their entropies, and is irreversible. Natural processes may occur spontaneously upon the removal of a constraint, or upon some other thermodynamic operation, or may be triggered in a metastable or unstable system, as for example in the condensation of a supersaturated vapour. Planck emphasised the occurrence of friction as an important characteristic of natural thermodynamic processes that involve transfer of matter or energy between system and surroundings.