There are positive effects of having deep conversations with strangers.

“Connecting with others in meaningful ways tends to make people happier, and yet people also seem unwilling to engage in deeper conversations, said Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. “This struck us as an interesting social paradox: If connecting with others in deep and meaningful ways increases well-being, then why aren’t people doing it more often in daily life?”

To answer that question, Epley and his colleagues designed several experiments, where pairs of people-mainly strangers-were asked to discuss either relatively deep or shallow topics. Before the conversations, participants predicted how awkward they thought the conversations would be, how connected they thought they would feel to their conversation partner and how much they would enjoy the conversation. Afterward, they rated their predictions on actual basis. Generally, the researchers found that deep conversations felt less awkward and led to greater feelings of connectedness and enjoyment than the participants had expected.

If deep connection is better, then why aren’t people actually having more of them? The researchers suspected it might be because people underestimate how interested strangers are in learning about their deeper thoughts and feelings. In some of the experiments, the researchers asked participants to predict how interested their conversation partner would be in the discussion, and then afterward to indicate how interested their partner actually was in the discussion. On average, people consistently underestimated how interested their partners would be in learning about them.

“People seemed to imagine that revealing something meaningful about themselves in conversation would be met with blank stares and silence, only to find this wasn’t true in the actual conversation,” Epley said. “Human beings are deeply social and tend to reciprocate in conversation. If you share something important, you are likely to get something important exchanged in return, leading to a considerably better conversation.”

These findings are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

By studying light from hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way, scientists have showed where the pieces that make up our galaxy came from.

In a new study, scientists broke the light coming from 600,000 stars into ranges that determine the stars’ chemical composition. In doing this, they were able to find which groups of stars are at home in the Milky Way and which are interlopers (闯入者) with other origins.

“The Milky Way ate up lots of smaller galaxies but we did not have enough evidence for sure.” Sven Buder, a scientist said. “That’s because simple images of stars in our Milky Way look the same whether they were born inside the galaxy or outside and then blended into the galaxy.”

For some time, data showing the motion patterns of stars has indicated that there are many populations of stars in the Milky Way that were not born there. This data has shown that some groups of stars move in different directions from the rest, suggesting that they could have arrived from outside of the galaxy.

Buder and his co-workers used the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) to split the light of those stars into a range of individual colors. By studying these colorful ranges, scientists can see the differing chemical compositions of the observed stars.

“By scanning, we measured how abundant 30 elements, such as iron and manganese (锰), were, and how they appeared in different concentrations depending on where the star was born,” Buder said.

Stars that originated in the Milky Way appear greener, while those from outside glow in yellower shades. Understanding the origins of star populations in the Milky Way may help solve further mysteries of the galaxy’s structure and composition. In the band of the Milky Way, which is visible in the night sky from Earth, older stars are separated from younger ones, but they have not yet figured out why. “Although the Milky Way is our home galaxy, we still do not understand how it formed and evolved,” Buder said.

“Sorry seems to be the hardest word” - that is one of Elton John’s most popular songs.

But not every public figure seems to find it so tough to say that powerful five- letter word.

In recent days public figures, from politicians to stars, have all publicly expressed remorse. But with so much remorse, how can we tell a forced apology from a heartfelt expression of remorse?

Specifically, saying sorry should be a realization that something you have said or done has hurt someone and you want to make amends ( 弥 补 ). “People want the response to be personal to them. They want to feel that they’re being listened to and taken seriously,” says Martin Stone.

Firstly, it is important to show that you understand. It is vital that any group or person making an apology understand the focus - is it sorry for the way it’s acted or is it sorry that the complainant feels the way they do?

Watch out for the speed of response. The quicker the apology comes, the better it indicates that the person making it has felt an immediate sense of guilt.

If sincere, the person making the apology will be looking for clues (线索) to see if he or she is being understood, such as eye contact and facial expressions. Performed apologies always have a sense of being “acted out”, and are often accompanied by too many unnatural gestures.

For a sincere apology, it is also important to avoid promises that can’t be kept. Don’t say that you’ll make sure that this will not happen again if you’re not confident that it won’t. It could come back to bite you. And do remember that the use of “but” can hugely change the tone ( 语 气 ) of an apology. As Stone points out, “I’m sorry but …” sounds like you are making excuses and aren’t actually taking any form of responsibility.