The objective is to identify the academic subject that differs from the others. (1) Physics examines matter, energy, space, and time, falling under natural science. (2) Geography studies Earth's features, environments, and human-environment interactions, integrating both natural and social sciences. (3) Chemistry investigates matter's composition, structure, properties, and reactions, also a natural science. (4) Botany, a branch of biology, studies plant life, representing another natural science. Physics, Chemistry, and Botany are core natural sciences. Geography, however, incorporates significant social science elements (human geography) and focuses on spatial distributions, differentiating it from the fundamental natural sciences. Therefore, Geography is the outlier. This corresponds to option (2).