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Kmele steps inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.

This video is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. According to Fermilab's Bonnie Flemming, the pursuit of scientific understanding is “daunting in an inspiring way.” What makes it daunting? The seemingly infinite number of questions, with their potentially inaccessible answers. In this episode of Dispatches from The Well, host Kmele Foster tours the grounds of America’s legendary particle accelerator to discover how exploring the mysteries at the heart of particle physics help us better understand some of the most profound mysteries of our universe.

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Chapters for easier navigation:-

00:00 - The Miracle of Birth

04:48 - Exploring the Universe's Mysteries

09:20 - Building Blocks of Matter and the Standard Model

13:35 - The Evolving Body of Knowledge

17:39 - Understanding the Early Universe

22:05 - Reflections on Particle Physics

25:34 - The Extraordinary Effort to Understand the Small

29:59 - From Paleontology to Astrophysics

33:40 - The Importance of the Scientific Method and Being Critical

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About Kmele Foster: Kmele Foster is a media entrepreneur, commentator, and regular contributor to various national publications. He is the co-founder and co-host of The Fifth Column, a popular media criticism podcast. He is the head of content at Founders Fund, a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies, and a partner at Freethink, a digital media company focused on the people and ideas changing our world. Kmele also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them.

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Psychologist Todd Rose debunks 8 myths so mainstream we all believe them.

Collective illusions — false assumptions about society that many people share — have existed for thousands of years in many different ways. Today, because of social media and modern technology, they have become even more common.

One example of a collective illusion is the commonly held belief that everyone wants fame, wealth, and power. That’s not true. Most of us want lives of purpose and meaning. But because of false assumptions, many of us spend our lives chasing things that won’t fulfill us.

Another example of a collective illusion is the pervasive idea that the U.S. is an irredeemably divided nation. Sure, Americans have plenty of disagreements. But fundamentally, they have more in common than they might think.

As former Harvard professor and bestselling author Todd Rose explains, the antidote to collective illusions is becoming a more authentic individual, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of how our innate drive to conform to social norms often works against that.

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Chapters For Easier Navigation:-

0:00 What is a “collective illusion”?

2:43 How myths invade private opinion

4:54 Myth: Other people can’t be trusted

8:32 Myth: Success is wealth, status, and power

11:12 Myth: Social media reveals what society thinks

13:56: Myth: Group consensus is vetted and factual

17:53: Myth: Elite jobs matter to us

21:11 Myth: America is on the verge of civil war

24:18 Myth: People want university degrees

26:57 Myth: Cultural norms exist to protect you

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About Todd Rose:

Todd Rose is the co-founder and president of Populace, a think tank committed to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to pursue fulfilling lives in a thriving society. Prior to Populace, he was a faculty member at Harvard University where he founded the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality and directed the Mind, Brain, and Education program. Todd is the best selling author of Collective Illusions, Dark Horse, and The End of Average. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts...

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How to unlock your brain’s natural antidepressants. We live in a world filled with risk. But the human brain is not good at thinking in terms of probabilities. Our fear response may not turn off until the perceived threat is completely gone. Can we find a way to adapt that doesn't involve reaching for prescription medication? Flow might be the answer. When we are in a state of flow, our brain is flooded with the neurotransmitters that are the key to a happy mind.

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About Steven Kotler: Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of ten bestsellers (out of thirteen books total), including The Art of Impossible, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME and the Harvard Business Review. Steven is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. Along with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is the co-founder of the Rancho de Chihuahua, a hospice and special needs dog sanctuary...

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Our best guesses at the mystery of memory, with Lisa Genova

   • 4 ways to hack your memory | Lisa Gen...  

Every time we learn something new, our brain changes.

There are four basic steps in creating a memory: encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval.

Figuring out how memories are encoded at the genetic and molecular level is at the frontier of neuroscience.

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About Lisa Genova:

Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Every Note Played. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases she writes about and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and NPR. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times. The New York Times bestseller REMEMBER is her first work of nonfiction.

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This biologist built a living robot from frog cells — and it could hold the key to the future of regenerative medicine: This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.

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Developmental biologist Michael Levin proposes an alternative approach to regenerative medicine: one that involves communicating with cells to trigger specific associations and induce changes in tissues. He envisions a future where biomedicine relies less on chemistry, and looks more like behavioral science. By leveraging the native competencies of cells, Levin thinks researchers can achieve complex outcomes without micromanagement. He demonstrates this through the regeneration of frog legs by simply prompting cells towards the regenerative state. Levin introduces “xenobots,” bio-robots formed by self-assembling frog skin cells. These xenobots are key to the regenerative medicine of the future, with the potential to create solutions for birth defects, reprogramming tumors — even creating new organs. Levin emphasizes the moral imperative to pursue this research to address pressing medical needs.

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Your memory is lying to you. Here’s how, with Lisa Genova

   • 4 ways to hack your memory | Lisa Gen...  

Our memories are not reality.

A memory is the pattern of neural activity that represents the sights, sounds, smells, feelings, information, and language that you experienced when you learned something. When this neural circuit is reactivated, you experience a memory.

Recalling memories is not a passive process. Every time we recall a memory, it changes, and we store this “2.0 version” over the older version in our brain. With each retelling, the memory drifts further and further away from the original memory.

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About Lisa Genova:

Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Every Note Played. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases she writes about and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and NPR. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times. The New York Times bestseller REMEMBER is her first work of nonfiction.

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A neuroscientist explains how to master your focus. There is far more information in the environment than our brains can fully process. Our ability to maintain "attention" allows the brain to prioritize those parts of the environment that are most relevant. Attention is much more than just focusing. It fuels our ability to think, feel, and connect.

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About Amishi Jha: Dr. Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami. She serves as the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California–Davis and postdoctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. Dr. Jha’s work has been featured at NATO, the World Economic Forum, and The Pentagon. She has received coverage in the The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Forbes and more.

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Can this “frozen zoo” resurrect the Northern White Rhino?, with Dr. Barbara Durrant

Due to poaching, the Northern White Rhinoceros is functionally extinct. There are only two members of the species left, and neither can reproduce.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has a unique biotech facility called the "frozen zoo" that could reverse the extinction.

Using in vitro fertilization, scientists hope to implant a Northern White Rhino embryo inside a Southern White Rhino, a closely related species. If successful, this procedure could help rescue critically endangered species or even resurrect extinct ones.

This video was originally created and shared by Freethink.

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Up next ►► Michio Kaku: 99.99% of species go extinct. What is humanity’s future?   • Michio Kaku: 99.99% of species go ext...  

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Experiences that put you in a state of flow are shown to override PTSD and heartbreak.

Up Next ► How to enter ‘flow state’ on command

Flow is an altered state of consciousness in which we feel and perform our best due to total absorption in an activity.

A state of flow, which is due to a cocktail of "feel-good" chemicals in the brain, can help overcome PTSD, addiction, and heartbreak.

Flow is so powerful that doctors might one day prescribe experiences like surfing or skydiving to help patients overcome trauma.

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About Steven Kotler:

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of ten bestsellers (out of thirteen books total), including The Art of Impossible, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME and the Harvard Business Review. Steven is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. Along with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is the cofounder of the Rancho de Chihuahua, a hospice and special needs dog sanctuary.

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Age expert Dr. Morgan Levine explains why living to 100 is the wrong goal. Dr. Morgan Levine suggests that we should aim for living better, not just longer. In her book, “True Age,” Levine introduces the idea of healthspan, which is about staying healthy and enjoying life, rather than merely adding years to it. She explores the concept of “compression of morbidity,” a goal to squeeze most of our inevitable ailments into a short period before we die, mirroring the patterns seen in people who live to 100 or more. Levine also highlights a paradox: Women generally outlive men, but they also endure more age-related illnesses. Ultimately, she argues that the benefits of longevity science should be accessible to everyone, with the goal of health disparities rather than increasing them.

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Chapters:-

0:00 The immortality obsession

0:30 The male-female survival paradox

1:34 Prolonging healthy life

2:07 Squeezing morbidity into fewer years

3:05 LIfe extension for all

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----------------------------------------------------

About Morgan Levine: Morgan Levine was previously a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the department of Pathology at Yale University where she ran the Laboratory for Aging in Living Systems. In 2022, she was recruited to join Altos Labs as a Founding Principal Investigator at the San Diego Institute of Science. She currently leads a research group at Altos Labs working at the intersection of bioinformatics, cellular biology, complex systems, and biostatistics with the overall goal of understanding the molecular trajectories aging cells, tissues, and organisms take through time. About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think Our mission is to make you smarter, faster. Watch interviews with the world’s biggest thinkers on science, philosophy, business, and more.

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Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

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