Science

Our present-day moon has an interior structure containing a central metallic core, overlain by a mantle comprised of minerals such as olivine and pyroxene (e.g. Ol+Px mantle) underneath a shell of crust. Such a picture of the moon’s interior has been formed from analyses of returning lunar samples and records of deep seismic events collected during missions to the moon.

Despite the wealth of literature, there is still a longstanding debate as to the existence of garnet (Gt) within the deeper part of the lunar mantle. Reflecting upon the existence of garnet, the pivotal question first posited 50 years ago has remained unanswered: are laboratory measured sound velocities in realistic lunar aggregates containing garnet compatible with the seismic profiles of the deep lunar interior?

To provide answers to this question, Ehime’s researchers first synthesized garnet-rich lunar rock assemblages (Ol+Px+Gt sample) at high pressures and high temperatures using the multi-anvil press apparatus “ORANGE-2000” at the Geodynamics Research Center.

The findings are published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

These samples were then transported to SPring-8, the Large-scale Synchrotron Radiation Facility, located in Hyogo Prefecture, where experiments were carried out at the high pressure and high temperature beamline BL04B1. Here the researchers subjected the lunar rock assemblage to pressure and temperature conditions similar to those of the moon’s deep interior while they measured the propagation speed of sound waves in the lunar rock assemblage.

Combining the results of their experiment with a modeling component, the researchers concluded that the sound velocities in lunar assemblages containing large amounts of garnet were compatible with the seismic and density profiles of the moon’s deep interior, between depths of 740–1,260 km.

Furthermore, they found that rock assemblages containing little to no garnet are unlikely to explain the observed seismic velocities and densities of the lunar mantle at those depths.

These intriguing results have significant implications for the moon and its interior dynamics, including its composition and formation, the interior temperature, as well as implications for the lunar core and the now defunct lunar dynamo.

A recent study, conducted in the midst of last year’s widespread protests in Israel, has uncovered extreme polarization in public opinion regarding the judicial reform introduced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The study, published in Communications Psychology by researchers at Bar-Ilan University, highlights the significant role of motivated reasoning in shaping people’s views on this controversial issue.

In January 2023, Israel’s newly elected government proposed a judicial reform aimed at curtailing the Supreme Court’s power over the government. While some groups expressed support, many others saw it as a weakening of democratic institutions.

The reform was pushed forward despite a lack of widespread voter support. Protests erupted across the country, reflecting deep concerns about the reform’s potential negative impacts on various sectors, including health care and academic freedom.

The study, conducted among the general Jewish population in Israel in the midst of the protests, involved two rounds of surveys in March and May 2023. It found that opinions about the reform were extremely polarized, with most individuals either strongly supporting or opposing it.

This polarization was driven by motivated reasoning, where people’s pre-existing beliefs significantly influenced their views. This thought process leads people to arrive at conclusions that align with what they already believe.

The study was led by Dr. Dora Simunovic, of Constructor University in Germany and Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Dr. Anna Dorfman and Dr. Maayan Katzir, of the Department of Psychology and Conflict Management, Resolution and Negotiation Program at Bar-Ilan University.

Key findings include:

• Trust Dynamics: Reform supporters showed high trust in the government and mistrust in the judiciary, while opponents exhibited the opposite.
• Views on Protests: Reform opponents viewed extreme protest measures as legitimate, whereas supporters justified the use of forceful means, such as stun grenades and water cannons to disperse demonstrations.
• Democratic Principles: Reform supporters, who won the electoral majority, prioritized Majority Rule as a core democratic principle, while opponents valued the protection of Minority Rights and Independent Media more highly.
• False Consensus: Both supporters and opponents believed their camp represented the majority, reflecting the psychological phenomenon of False Consensus.

“We were surprised by how quickly polarization over this newly emerging issue developed and the strong false consensus effect we observed,” said researcher Dr. Maayan Katzir.

“People were convinced that their camp was the majority, no matter what their actual opinion was. This is a serious issue, because when each side is certain that they represent the majority, they are less willing to compromise, which maintains and deepens polarization.”

Dr. Dora Simunovic, the study’s lead author, explains that motivated reasoning affects everybody, regardless of partisanship, religion, education, and other characteristics. She adds, “The phenomenon of false consensus is concerning because it suggests that both sides feel emboldened by their perceived majority status, reducing the likelihood of compromise.”

The study underscores the importance of understanding how motivated reasoning affects opinions on controversial topics and the potential for rapid polarization in societies, like Israel, with segregated education streams. Future research will explore how these educational differences influence national identity and democratic understanding.

“We need to look at how people understand what democracy is, because distorted and biased understanding of democracy can lead to support of undemocratic policies and actions,” concludes Dr. Dorfman.

Can you remember your last in-person exam? You’re waiting outside the venue with your identification, pens and back-up pens. Everyone is nervously looking at their notes or avoiding eye contact.

The doors open and you enter a cavernous space of numbered tables in rows. You find your seat and, waiting to start, glance around the vast space that surrounds you.

Our research suggests this environment may have an effect on your ability to perform at your best.

In our new study, we looked at the impact of ceiling heights on the exam performance of Australian students.

Exams have a long history

Exams date back more than 1,300 years and are still one of the most common forms of assessment for school and university. They are often conducted in large spaces for efficiency in supervision and space use. This often includes gymnasiums, auditoriums, showgrounds, halls and exhibition buildings.

While the pandemic led a shift to online exams, growing concern over AI and other forms of cheating has seen a renewed emphasis on this traditional style of in-person assessment (even if research shows “high stakes” exams are not good for learning or the prevention of cheating).

Our research

In our previous 2022 lab-based study, we found if rooms were larger, there was an impact on brain activity associated with our ability to concentrate.

This led us to wonder whether, in everyday life, large rooms have an impact on cognitive performance (or how well our brains can perform tasks)—and therefore whether traditional large exam halls have an impact on students’ results.

To test this, in our new study, we compared students’ exam results across different sizes of rooms.

We looked at the results from 15,400 psychology undergraduates at one Australian university over eight years (2011–19), and across three campuses.

We matched exam scores and the room dimensions where the examinations were held. This included rooms with ceiling heights between 2.79 meters to 9.50m, and internal floor areas between 38m² to 1,562m².

As we relied on non-experimental data (things in their natural state), we were careful to account for other variables that might account for the results.

We factored in students’ coursework scores as well as variables such as their gender, age, past exam experience and the unit of study. We also looked at geographic location, as admission requirements were different across campuses. All of these helped us understand what might affect our results.

To do our analysis, we used a statistical model called a “linear mixed model.” This meant we could add these different variables to try and understand the extent to which they predict something (in this case, exam performance).

What we found

The “significance” score for coursework was less than 0.001 and for ceiling height it was 0.002. A score below 0.05 means the result is unlikely to happen by chance, so we can be confident there’s a real effect.

This means a students’ prior coursework scores had a bigger impact on their exam score. But we still found ceiling height was a significant predictor of their results. In other words, even after accounting for other factors, higher ceiling heights were a significant predictor of the students’ exam scores.

This suggests study habits matter but so too do the dimensions of the room in which you sit the exam.

Why is this?

Our fresh findings suggest several questions ripe for further research. These include:

• is room insulation and climate control (which affect the air temperature, quality and circulation) a reason for room size making a difference? Research shows factors such as temperature affect cognitive performance.
• does room context have an impact? If we know big halls and gyms are usually designed for large social gatherings and sporting events, does this make us feel less comfortable or bring back past memories, and therefore make us less likely to perform at our best?
• does being in a space with more people sitting close by means you are more or less likely to cheat? How does this affect your score?
• what happens when students are randomly allocated to rooms of different sizes? At present there are other factors such as special consideration which will determine exam room allocation and conditions.

We also need to consider what is happening now for online exams. This has introduced new variability around the environmental conditions for students. Here, a student may have an advantage if they feel cozy and relaxed at home, or perhaps they may struggle to concentrate due to other environmental and social factors at home.

Given we only studied students in one discipline (psychology) we also need to replicate these findings in different areas and groups of students.

What else?

This work also feeds into our broader research about how building design can effect what our brains need to do.

There is already significant community awareness of how buildings can impact upon our physical health—and building codes and regulations to make sure they meet these standards.

But as our research shows, the way spaces are designed can have an impact on the way we think and how well we perform a task. This could be applied beyond exams to how we learn or do our jobs in the broader world.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

NASA will soon provide advanced training to Indian astronauts to send a joint mission to the International Space Station this year or shortly thereafter, US envoy to India Eric Garcetti has said. Garcetti made these remarks while speaking at the “US-India Commercial Space Conference: Unlocking Opportunities for US & Indian Space Startups,” hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the US Commercial Service (USCS) in Bengaluru on Friday.

“NASA will soon provide advanced training to Indian astronauts, with the goal of mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station, hopefully, this year or shortly thereafter, which was one of the promises of our leaders’ visit together,” Garcetti said.

“And soon we will launch the NISAR satellite from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Center to monitor all resources, including ecosystems, the Earth’s surface, natural hazards, sea level rise, and the cryosphere,” Garcetti said, according to a USIBC press statement issued here.

NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

“You see whether it’s the pursuit of peace and the peaceful use of space, things like the Artemis Accord, we are hand in hand, arm in arm. When it comes to prosperity and jobs, which is a big part of this conference today, it can be produced by startups in this sector, good-paying, high-tech jobs for Indians and for Americans. Space is right there,” Garcetti said.

The Artemis Accords lay out a framework for collaborating nations’ safe exploration of the moon and beyond.

The day-long event in Bengaluru saw the participation from senior officials from both the US and Indian governments, including Garcetti, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr. S Somanath, representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Government of India, as well as prominent leaders from the commercial space industry, industry stakeholders, venture capitalists, and market analysts.

“I must salute the visionary leadership that we have in both nations in India and the US for engaging in such an accord which looks at the moon as a sustainable place for all of us to come and work together,” Somnath said in his remarks.

“The connection between the Indian partners and also the US partners in critical technologies and specifically in the space sector is really becoming stronger. And I’m very happy about that type of engagement and the options available to the industries and the US business indigenous to connect with India in the emerging space sector as well,” he said.

Expressing optimism about the prospects of US-India collaboration in space, USIBC president Atul Keshap described it as a new chapter in the US-India space partnership. This week has been particularly fruitful, with USIBC and USCS joining forces to champion these two iCET space deliverables, he said.

“The conference highlights the deepening synergy between our two free nations in pioneering space exploration and innovation by the leading democracies. Through strategic alliances and collaborative efforts, we’re on the brink of achieving extraordinary milestones and expanding the horizons of space exploration beyond what we once imagined,” Keshap said.

The US-India Commercial Space Conference underscores the importance of fostering strategic partnerships to drive innovation and propel the space industry forward,” said USIBC managing director Alexander Slater.

“This is the next step in USIBC’s continued commitment to fostering bilateral cooperation among leading companies and startups from both countries to unlock new opportunities for economic growth, job creation and technological leadership. It builds on our work in February when we hosted the second edition of INDUS-X in New Delhi, which promoted similar opportunities for innovation and cooperation in new and emerging defence technologies,” he said.

Meanwhile, senior defence officials from India and the US have met in Washington to discuss opportunities to strengthen space cooperation and identified potential areas for collaboration with the American industry.

Meeting for the second annual US-India Advanced Domains Defence Dialogue (AD3), the officials discussed a wide range of bilateral cooperation.

The American team was led by Vipin Narang, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy, and the visiting Indian delegation was led by Vishwesh Negi, India’s Joint Secretary for International Cooperation.

During this year’s Dialogue, Narang and Negi discussed opportunities to strengthen space cooperation and identified potential areas for collaboration with US industry, said Department of Defence Spokesperson Cmdr. Jessica Anderson.

Among a group of US and Indian defence officials, the two co-chaired the first US-India principal-level tabletop discussion that explored areas to enhance cooperation in the space domain.

They agreed to advance AD3 through regular working group discussions.

The visiting Indian Government delegation also engaged with the US Space Command, the Joint Commercial Operations Cell, and artificial intelligence experts from across the US Department of Defence, Anderson said.

An artificial intelligence can beat the best human players at the racing video game Gran Turismo 7 using only the images and information that players can see.

In 2022, researchers at Sony created GT Sophy, a driving AI that could beat the best human players at Gran Turismo Sport, a previous version of the game. However, the AI had access to information that human players didn’t, such as real-time information of other cars and the layout of the racetrack beyond the driver’s view.

A research team led by Osaka University discovered that the new organic molecule thienyl diketone shows high-efficiency phosphorescence. It achieved phosphorescence that is more than ten times faster than traditional materials, allowing the team to elucidate this mechanism.

The paper is published in the journal Chemical Science.

Phosphorescence is a valuable optical function used in applications such as organic EL displays (OLEDs) and cancer diagnostics. Until now, achieving high-efficiency phosphorescence without using rare metals such as iridium and platinum has been a significant challenge. Phosphorescence, which occurs when a molecule transitions from a high-energy state to a low-energy state, often competes with non-radiative processes where the molecule loses energy as heat.

This competition can lead to slow phosphorescence and lower efficiency. While previous research indicated that incorporating certain structural elements into organic molecules could speed up phosphorescence, these efforts have not matched the speed and efficiency of rare metal-based materials.

The research team’s breakthrough with the new organic molecule thienyl diketone represents a significant advancement in the field. Yosuke Tani, senior author of the study, remarked, “We discovered this molecule by chance and initially did not understand why it demonstrated such superior performance. However, as our research progressed, we began to connect the pieces and deepen our understanding.”

“Our research has led to a clearer understanding of the mechanism behind this molecule’s performance than any previous organic phosphorescent material,” explains Dr. Tani. “Nonetheless, we believe there is still much to explore, and we are excited about its potential applications.”

This research provides new design guidelines for developing organic phosphorescent materials that do not rely on rare metals, offering the potential to surpass and replace these materials in various applications. The findings promise significant advancements in the fields of OLEDs, lighting, and medical diagnostics, among others.

Lunar swirls are light-colored, sinuous features on the moon’s surface, bright enough to be visible from a backyard telescope. Some people think they look like the brushstrokes in an abstract painting. But these are not mere artistic flourishes: NASA images show that the tendrils from some lunar swirls extend for hundreds of miles.

Lunar swirls have defied easy explanation, but recent modeling and spacecraft data shed light on the twisty mystery. The data shows that rocks in the swirls are magnetized, and these rocks deflect or redirect solar wind particles that constantly bombard the moon. Nearby rocks take the hit instead. Over time, neighboring rocks become darkened by chemical reactions caused by the collisions, while the swirls remain light colored.

But how did the rocks in lunar swirls get magnetized? The moon does not have a magnetic field today. No astronaut or rover has yet visited a lunar swirl to investigate.

“Impacts could cause these types of magnetic anomalies,” said Michael J. Krawczynski, an associate professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He notes that meteorites regularly deliver iron-rich material to areas on the moon’s surface. “But there are some swirls where we’re just not sure how an impact could create that shape and that size of thing.”

Krawczynski believes it’s more likely that something else has locally magnetized the swirls.

“Another theory is that you have lavas underground, cooling slowly in a magnetic field and creating the magnetic anomaly,” said Krawczynski, who designed experiments to test this explanation. His results are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Krawczynski and study first author Yuanyuan Liang, who recently earned her Ph.D. in Earth, environmental and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, measured the effects of different combinations of atmospheric chemistry and magmatic cooling rates on a mineral called ilmenite to see if they could produce a magnetizing effect.

“Earth rocks are very easily magnetized because they often have tiny bits of magnetite in them, which is a magnetic mineral,” Krawczynski said. “A lot of the terrestrial studies that have focused on things with magnetite are not applicable to the moon, where you don’t have this hyper-magnetic mineral.”

But ilmenite, which is abundant on the moon, can also react and form particles of iron metal, which can be magnetized under the right conditions, Krawczynski and his team found.

“The smaller grains that we were working with seemed to create stronger magnetic fields because the surface area to volume ratio is larger for the smaller grains compared to the larger grains,” Liang said. “With more exposed surface area, it is easier for the smaller grains to undergo the reduction reaction.”

“Our analog experiments showed that at lunar conditions, we could create the magnetizable material that we needed. So, it’s plausible that these swirls are caused by subsurface magma,” said Krawczynski, who is a faculty fellow in the university’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

Determining the origin of lunar swirls is considered key in understanding what processes have shaped the lunar surface, the history of a magnetic field on the moon and even how the surfaces of planets and moons generally affect the space environment surrounding them.

This study will help interpret data acquired by future missions to the moon, especially those that explore magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface. NASA intends to send a rover to the lunar swirl area known as Reiner Gamma in 2025 as part of the Lunar Vertex mission.

“If you’re going to make magnetic anomalies by the methods that we describe, then the underground magma needs to have high titanium,” Krawczynski said. “We have seen hints of this reaction creating iron metal in lunar meteorites and in lunar samples from Apollo. But all of those samples are surface lava flows, and our study shows cooling underground should significantly enhance these metal-forming reactions.”

For now, his experimental approach is the best way to test predictions about how unseen lava may be driving the magnetic effects of the mysterious lunar swirls.

“If we could just drill down, we could see if this reaction was happening,” Krawczynski said. “That would be great, but it’s not possible yet. Right now, we’re stuck with the surface.”