A conversation with a neuroscientist about how nature can fortify the strong and support resilience
2:30 PM CDT on September 4, 2026
In 1984, Swedish healthcare design pioneer Roger Ulrich published one of the first landmark studies to suggest that nature can make people feel better. Ulrich’s study, which appeared in Science, found that hospital patients recovering from gall bladder surgery healed a day faster, needed less pain medication, and had fewer postsurgical complications if they could look out a window at a garden instead of at a brick wall.
The idea that humans are adapted to nature was in the zeitgeist at the time. That same year, biologist E.O. Wilson published his influential book Biophilia, which proposed that humans have an innate, evolutionarily-derived tendency to seek out connections with nature and other forms of life.
Read more: “Are We Wired to Be Outside?”
