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One thing I can say about you right now, is that you are going to die, and yes this is scary,
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that is why today i am going to use scientific principles to help you understand and cope with the inevitable
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ending of your life.
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Grade 7 was the first i ever processed the concept of dying. I remember freezing in my tracks and thinking,
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wait so, this is all just going to end? Mommy!
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I eventually agreed with my own brain to suppres this fear and just go through the motions of life.
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I put excessive energy into schoolwork, got pimples, started date girls, realizing I only wanted to to them
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about the Lizzie McGuire movie, so I started dating guys, but it wasn't until my brilliant high school teachers
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made me fall head over heals in love with science, that a healthy perspective on death began to emerge.
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Your body is controlled by genes that code for proteins that lead to the formation of
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neural impulses that make constantly search out for meaning in life.
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This was first shown in a slightly violent study in the 1960. Participants visualized videos of victims
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suffering electrical shocks. the participants watching the
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videos would harshly judge the victims of the shocks as bad people.
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Psychologists and bioligists began to posit that humans feel an inate impulse to create meaning.
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In this case if you had to watch someone get electrically shocked, then they must have deserved it.
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It is now understood that according to your biology, you and everyone else on the planet will constantly
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be looking for meaning to life, and to death. So according to science at least you know you're not alone
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in any attempt to explain your own death.
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Now lets zoom out . Look at the night sky and you see the milky way galaxy full of an estimated
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100 billion stars. That is is just one galaxy, there this a billion other galaxies in our observable universe,
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which is only expanded and getting bigger. How can we matter in such an expansive universe?
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Well, put both of your firsts together like this. That is roughly the size of your brain.
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An organ that has evolved over millions of years to have 86 billion neurons and even Glial cells to support it.
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There are more cells in your brain than stars in the milky way galaxy.
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You have an incredibly biological machine tucked wonderfully into your skull right now,
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that is astonishingly capable of conceptualizing the very idea that our universe is huge, expanding and vast.
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Science essential proves you are exceptionally smart. Before you die,
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you have unique opportunity to live a complex and wonderful life. Like all other forms of life on earth,
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you are made of atoms and atoms and molecules smashing into one another,
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absorbing energy from your environment, but unique to you, in your amazing brain,
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is the ability to contemplate your actions, make decisions, and care.
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Now let's zoom in. As a science teacher I know you should all remember drawing
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the electron diagrams of the first 20 elements of the periodic table.
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This is part of most, worldwide, high school science curriculum's. If you don't remember doing that,
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then on behalf of all science teachers everywhere... clap clap
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Eyes on the board please? Thank you. Can we all pay more attention in class?
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These diagrams were meant to show you that everything in our known universe is made up of
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protons, electrons, and neutrons.
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Yes we can get even smaller into the realm of quarks, Bosons or neutrinos,
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in fact, the sun is constantly emitting neutrinos with 100 trillion of them passing through your body every second.
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But let's stay on topic, we're talking today about death. We'll save neutrinos for another day.
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These protons, neutrons and electrons are all governed by forces that help explain, well, everything.
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How you evolved how you move, and yes, most importantly, how your phone works (hello?)
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You can describe your whole life based on the positions , velocities, and orientations of all of these atoms in your body,
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and this is called kinetic theory.
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You can use the kinetic theory to explain how plants absorb energy from the sun through photosynthesis.
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We eats plants or animals that have eaten plants, in order to gain that energy.
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Our bodies use that energy to power the process of the special molecule a called ATP,
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which powers every part of your life.
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Muscle contraction, transporting molecules throughout the body, synthesizing DNA etc.
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And yes, ATP is synthesized in the mitochondria, making the mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell.
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Infact, to stay alive, you'll typically create and use your whole bodyweight inATP molecules in one day.
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But, this also means that according to the kinetic, theory, regardless of your religion or spirituality,
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dying means that life as we know it ends.
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As your body loses the capability of creating ATP, and you start to physically fall apart.
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And one study found that when given the option to essentially produce ATP forever and live for eternity,
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overwhelming people said no, they want to eventually die. The fact that death is looming is what makes life so special.
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And in a wonderful way, death is really the only thing that we all have in common.
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In many ways, death is the meaning of life.
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Also passionately learning about science offers the unique opportunity to grasp what science can't explain.
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And knowing what science doesn't know can bring clarity. Takes these 3 examples of Shawn Caroll's
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epic book, the big picture. 1 the universe is expanding, 2 humans and chimpanzees share a common anscestor,
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3 we should live happier and longer lives.
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The first 2 statements are rooted in science. We use impericism, resoning and observation to explain them.
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The last statement is not rooted in science. Science doesn't involve doing experiments
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to decide if people should lead happier, longer lives. Science just observes the world and it doesn't
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say whether something is right or wrong.
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Another way of looking at this is through evolution. Evolution is an incredible process based on
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millions of years of change, adaptation, and impulses. It just follows the laws of nature,
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but can't explain how to live your life.
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You have the power to change your life. You have the power to care about others,
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and you have the power life love laugh, babe, and that is incredible.
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After you do inevitably die, you live on in the memories of others for the time being.
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And then, you'll be forgotten in the change and passing of life.
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There are this any atoms in your body which insanely amazing but, these little guys will eventually stop being you.
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And even though collectively they will no longer be you, it is comforting to know
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that they will remain on earth after you have left.
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Once gone, even if the whole human race vanishes, the universe will still be here doing its thing,
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moving along according to the laws of nature. But sticking to right now,
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according to science, we are all sharing this universe,
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sharing the same laws of nature and sharing the same task of creating meaning to what is happening around us.
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It is estimated that you have around 3 billion heat beats in a life time, so it is up to you to make them count.
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So, some scientific reasons to not fear death is 1, we humans are meaning making machines,
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we can choose to not make death a dreadful thing, and choose to live a meaningful life.
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2, you might feel insignificant, but there lies within you more neural cells than stars in our universe.
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3, eventually you will stop making ATP, but the fact that it ends, is what makes life so great.
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4, science can't explain everything, so it us to you to choose to live your life to your fullest.
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And 5, eventually your atoms will atoms will stop being you, but you were made of will likely carry on for eternity.
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Science is a brilliant way to view the complexity of your life and help inform how you live it, while here,
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and thankfully, if you are still watching this, congratulations, you are alive,
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but again if there's one thing I can say about you right now, it is that you, yes you are going to die.
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I'm constantly on a quest to deal with my own fear of death and this book helped me with this video a lot,
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its called the picture by Shawn Carroll it is amazing, check it out.
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It talks about morality, consciousness, life, death, and all through the realm of science.
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We'll leave the link to get the book below and make sure you subscribe for more science videos, peace.