Energetics is the study of energy under transformation. Because energy flows at all scales, from the quantum level to the biosphere and cosmos, energetics is a very broad discipline, encompassing for example thermodynamics, chemistry, biological energetics, biochemistry and ecological energetics. Energetics studies the flow of energy through material structures, it seeks to understand the processes which govern the stock and flow of material and energy and how they are processed through all types of systems, biotic and abiotic. As a general statement of energy flows under transformation, the principles of energetics include the first four laws of thermodynamics.