James' World 2

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In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini makes reference to what he considers to be one of the most important yet often unrecognized factors inherent in the art and practice of influence and persuasion, two highly significant aspects of effective communications. Whether we are involved in personal relations, business transactions, politics, sales, education, or any other domain that deals with just about any type of interpersonal transaction, our ability to influence the perspective of others is critical to the fulfillment of our goals and intentions.

Lest we forget, there is a profound difference between “control,” which has to do with having domination or authority over another, and “influence” which has to do with the power to sway or affect change in another’s perspective or behavior. Efforts to control frequently result in outcomes that differ from or may even be the opposite of our intended desires, since most of us have a natural tendency to resist overt efforts from others to control our behavior or beliefs.

Exploring the rule of reciprocation

In his book, Cialdini makes reference to what he refers to as the “rule of reciprocation” which has to do with the universal tendency in human beings to feel compelled to repay or reciprocate when given a gift whether it has come in the form of a material object, a kind deed, or an act of generosity. There is a strong impulse in people from all cultures to repay gifts or favors with a gift of our own to them. This impulse expresses itself in reciprocation to invitations to parties, Christmas cards, birthday presents, or acts of kindness.

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Rule of Reciprocation

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Getting a good night’s sleep is absolutely essential for our mental and physical health.

Rather than being a time when the body completely shuts down, as is sometimes said, it is actually an active time when your body repairs cells, processes information, and strengthens itself. Many of the exact ways in which this happens are still a mystery to scientists, but they all resolutely emphasize its importance for good health and well-being.

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Photos by Getty, Unsplash / Lead image design: Alessia Armenise

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Chronic pain—defined as pain that lasts more than three months—can be debilitating and all-consuming, affecting both physical and mental health. It shapes a person’s reality. And yet many, especially women, who describe their chronic pain as such find themselves being dismissed as overly dramatic.

According to psychologist Jennifer Patterson, “pain is sexist,” with more women than men experiencing chronic pain. Moreover, women’s pain, especially when chronic, isn’t taken as seriously as that experienced by men.

Restricting our consideration of chronic pain to just its clinical aspects overshadows the impact it has on women’s daily lives. “[H]ow we think and talk about pain is influenced by general cultural beliefs,” Patterson writes. Both medical and cultural contexts “generate layers of meanings that intersect with those of individuals’ patient and personal identities (and roles) through the national, individual, local and familial cultures of which each person is formed.”

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Samadhan is an outlier in his home village in western India. Last year, he became the first person from there to start a science Ph.D. Samadhan, a student in Maharashtra state, is an Adivasi or indigenous person — a member of one of the most marginalized and poorest communities in India.

For that reason, he doesn’t want to publicize his last name or institution, partly because he fears that doing so would bring his social status to the attention of a wider group of Indian scientists. “They’d know that I am from a lower category and will think that I have progressed because of [the] quota,” he says.

The quota Samadhan refers to is also known as a reservation policy: a form of affirmative action that was written into India’s constitution in 1950. Reservation policies aimed to uplift marginalized communities by allocating quotas for them in public-sector jobs and in education. Mirroring India’s caste system of social hierarchy, the most privileged castes dominated white-collar professions, including roles in science and technology. After many years, the Indian government settled on a 7.5% quota for Adivasis (referred to as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ in official records) and a 15% quota for another marginalized group, the Dalits (referred to in government records as ‘Scheduled Castes’, and formerly known by the dehumanizing term ‘untouchables’). These quotas — which apply to almost all Indian research institutes — roughly correspond to these communities’ representation in the population, according to the most recent census of 2011.

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Illustration by Polygon8

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Black holes form natural time machines that allow travel to both the past and the future. But don’t expect to be heading back to visit the dinosaurs any time soon.

At present, we don’t have spacecraft that could get us anywhere near a black hole. But, even leaving that small detail aside, attempting to travel into the past using a black hole might be the last thing you ever do.

A black hole is an extremely massive object that is typically formed when a dying star collapses in on itself.Like planets and stars, black holes have gravitational fields around them. A gravitational field is what keeps us stuck to Earth, and what keeps Earth revolving around the Sun.

As a rule of thumb, the more massive an object is, the stronger its gravitational field.

Earth’s gravitational field makes it extremely difficult to get to space. That’s why we build rockets: we have to travel very fast to break out of Earth’s gravity.

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An artist’s illustration of a black hole. (Image credit: solars even via Getty Images)

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The First Five:

1 Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night).

2 On the fence about a purchase? Wait 72 hours before you buy it.

3 Tip: the quickest supermarket queue is always behind the fullest trolley (greeting, paying and packing take longer than you think).

4 Bring fruit to work. Bring fruit to bed!

5 Consider going down to four days a week. It’s likely a disproportionate amount of your fifth day’s work is taxed anyway,

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Photo by Malte Mueller/Getty Images

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Architects designing the living space for the upcoming lunar Gateway did their best to make it comfortable for astronauts, but technical constraints forced them to create a tiny, noisy corridor with no windows and barely enough room to stand upright.

The European-built international habitat, or I-Hab, is meant to provide living quarters for astronauts on board the Lunar Gateway, a future outpost that will orbit the Moon. The purpose of Gateway, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and other international partners, is to provide a place for astronauts to conduct science in lunar orbit and to transfer from one spacecraft to another, such as a lunar lander. But an architect involved in I-Hab’s design recently revealed the claustrophobic conditions for the orbital habitat that’s supposed to house up to four astronauts for around 90 days at a time.

During the Czech Space Week conference in Brno, Czechia (the country formerly known as the Czech Republic), René Waclavicek, a space architect and design researcher at Austria-based LIQUIFER Space Systems, stated that the Lunar Gateway will be roughly one-sixth of the size of the International Space Station (ISS), Space.com reported. Waclavicek, who was involved in I-Hab’s design, said that the architects behind the lunar living quarters were constrained by the amount of material that can be transported to the Moon, requiring them to make some sacrifices.

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An illustration of the lunar gateway in orbit around the Moon.

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