What Is the Best Example of the Principle of Interdependence? [Quote Poster]

What Is the Best Example of the Principle of Interdependence? [Quote Poster]

Culture, Featured

The principle of interdependence is the key to the existence of nature’s entire system. The best example we have of this are the cells in the human body. They connect with one another through mutual giving for the benefit of the entire body. Every cell receives what it needs to exists, and applies the rest of its strength toward the general body. –Professor Günter Blobel, M.D.,...

What Is the Most Astounding Fact about the Universe? – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Featured, Science

The most astounding fact [about the universe] is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy—guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself, so that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up, many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life. You want to feel connected. You want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you are a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are just by being alive. — Dr. Neil DeGrasse...
Benefits of Sympathy and Cross-Race Friendships Explained by Science

Benefits of Sympathy and Cross-Race Friendships Explained by Science

Featured, Science

When people do overcome the temptation of self-interest and instead help and cooperate with others, they become more respected in their group, and then upon receiving that respect, they then help others even more. –Robb Willer, Ph.D., M.A., B.A. Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford University.   3 Benefits of Being Sympathetic We [psychologists] have become interested in concepts like compassion and gratitude. Only 8 or 9 years ago, there was one study of gratitude in scientific literature. 1,000s of studies of anger, and one study of gratitude. There is this long standing assumption that in terms of evolution, it is survival of the fittest, and it is important to know, that wasn’t Darwin who said that, but somebody who came after Darwin named Herbert Spencer. What Darwin said in Descent of Man is, ‘Sympathy is our strongest instinct.’ Sympathetic people do better in the game of reproduction. It turns out they are more attractive as mates. Sympathetic parents have kids who are more resilient, and who thrive more. Sympathetic people do better in competitive situations with strangers. Data shows kind people fair pretty well and evoke a lot of trust in others. –Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychology professor leading research in emotion and social interaction.   See How a Cross-Race Friendship Is Good for Your Health In a Berkeley experiment designed by psychologist Rudy Mendoza-Denton, researchers sought answers to overcome prejudice. They put two strangers of different races together in a room. They first measured the level of the hormone Cortisol, which is elevated when a person is under stress. They are given increasingly personal questions to ask...