July 19, 2024: We're covering the far side of the moon, the influence of chatbots on published scientific findings and one of the best health hacks out there. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Two kilograms of rock and dust collected from the far side of the moon and returned to Earth last month could help scientists understand why that more distant lunar face is so different from the face we see from Earth, writes astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait. The near side features dark plains, or "maria," of solidified lava amidst brighter reflective highlands and heavily cratered regions. By contrast, the far side has a thicker crust of mostly highlands sprinkled with smaller maria. With the new moon rocks and recent mapping, researchers can test a "differential cooking" theory for the hemispheric dichotomy.
How it works: After a Mars-sized object, called Theia, collided with Earth, it released superheated rock that coalesced to form our moon, or so the theory goes. That energy release also vaporized and melted Earth's surface, which was about a tenth of its current distant from the moon, Plait writes. This hot Earth could have driven elements to the moon's cooler side where they condensed and mixed to form minerals and ultimately the far side's thicker crust.
Nifty nugget: Many of you know this but it's a misconception to refer to the moon's far side as its dark side, as in the classic 1973 Pink Floyd album. The far side receives as much sunlight as the near side. We just can't see it from Earth's surface due to tidal locking. | | | This unfamiliar orb is actually Earth's moon, as seen from the "far" side that is always turned away from our planet. The lunar far side is significantly different than the near, Earth-facing hemisphere, with a thicker crust, more rugged terrain, and fewer dark plains of frozen lava. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University | | | Language generated by ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots has been appearing more frequently in recent scientific literature, raising questions about whether AI is used for analysis and not just wordsmithing in published research, reports freelance journalist Chris Stokel-Walker. More than 1% of research papers published last year are estimated to have been "contaminated" by AI chatbot-generated words, according to an analysis by librarian and researcher Andrew Gray. A similar analysis by Scientific American of several scientific publication databases revealed that the phrase "as of my last knowledge update," which only appeared once in 2020, showed up 136 times in 2022. ChatGPT was released in November of the latter year.
How they did it: In a large database of research data and papers, Gray searched for adjectives and adverbs that show up more often in AI-generated sentences than they do in those generated by humans. The approach reveals the scale of the problem rather than "giveaway" instances, Stokel-Walker writes.
What the experts say: The concern is not so much with AI-generated language as it is with AI-generated judgments, the story states. Chatbots are "not good at doing analysis, and that's where the real danger lies," says Matt Hodgkinson, a council member at a nonprofit organization that focuses on ethical practices in academic research. | | | Amanda Montañez; Source: Andrew Gray | | | • Worldwide tech outage started with a defective update to the Microsoft Windows operating system. | 4 min read | | | • Do not waste your energy, and possibly risk your life, by falling for untested so-called health hacks that go viral on social media. In truth, vaccination is one of the easiest, safest and most effective health hacks out there, write immunologist Aimee Pugh Bernard and preventive disease physician David Higgins. Every year, thousands of adults in the U.S. die from influenza, pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19 and other vaccine-preventable diseases. And hundreds of thousands of adults in the U.S. are hospitalized annually due to these diseases. Vaccines give your immune system practice sessions, exposing cells to an inactivated version of the virus or other disease-causing organism so your system is prepared to tackle the real pathogen skillfully and swiftly when it comes along. Unlike trendy health hacks, vaccines are one of the most tested ways to maintain health.| 3 min read | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times. | 5 min read | | | • How to reconnect with old friends who have become strangers. | 5 min read | | | • A new, deadly era of space junk is dawning, and no one is ready. | 12 min read | | | • What is humor? Evolutionary biologists theorize that laughter in a group is a sign of feeling safe and relaxed, opening the door to playful emotions. Even rats and apes have a sense of humor. | 10 min read | | | • Time spent in green parks and nature has been linked to better sleep, lower blood pressure and a stronger immune system, reports Lydia Denworth. Disadvantaged groups get an even bigger health boost from time spent in nature than do more privileged ones, early research suggests. | 4 min read | | | Some days, I could really use one of those home-made models of the solar system that enable rotation/spinning and orbital motion so you can visualize bodies rotating around their central axis as they orbit around another larger axis. The moon's phases and tidal locking are challenging to explain without such an apparatus. All these years after the Apollo missions, lunar science and exploration continue to flourish. Just this week, scientists reported evidence of a 13o-foot-wide cave, formed by collapsed lava, on the moon. Hundreds more are thought to exist. If you're like me, the simplest lunar questions are still engaging. For instance, listen to physicist Sean M. Carroll explain here why we know that the moon is not made of cheese or read this Anti-Gravity essay that expands on the topic. Anyway, tomorrow is the 55th anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Happy "One Small Step, One Giant Leap" Day!
| —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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