The emergence of life on Earth and its almost infinite diversity, reflected by a myriad of living organisms, are among the dilemmas that have forever fascinated scientists and philosophers. Today, we are still not able to determine what exactly initiated the chain of events leading to the rise of life – the mechanism of replication of initial structures or perhaps the occurrence of first metabolic reactions. Further approximations of these issues shall probably constitute an overwhelming driving force for future development of life sciences.

One of the most important parameters in the study of diffraction gratings is their optical efficiency. This paper analyzes the different manufacturing processes to cover gratings of Moiré interferometry and their influence on the quality and absolute efficiency of replicated gratings on the surfaces of specimens. The Moiré interferometry is a field measurement technique that has been used in many different fields such as applied mechanics, microelectronics, biomechanics or micromechanics, hence the importance of this study. The applied reflected coating was done by sputtering and aluminium vaporization processes. In this work different materials and thickness layers were analyzed. The obtained coatings have a high degree of reflectivity on the replicated gratings.

We conducted pre-registered replications of 15 effects in the field of judgment and decision making (JDM). We aimed to test the generalizability of different classical and modern JDM effects, including, among others: less-is- better, anchoring, and framing to different languages, cultures, or current situations (COVID-19 pandemic). Replicated studies were selected and conducted by undergraduate psychology students enrolled in a decision-making course. Two hundred and two adult volunteers completed an online battery of replicated studies. With a classical significance criterion (p < .05), seven effects were successfully replicated (47%), five partially replicated (33%), and three did not replicate (20%). Even though research materials differed from the originals in several ways, the replication rate in our project is slightly above earlier reported findings in similar replication projects. We discuss factors that may underlie replication results (success vs. failure). We also stress the role of open science practices such as open data, open research materials, pre-registration, and registered reports in improving the replicability of results in the JDM field.

NHST (null hypothesis significance testing) is the most popular statistical paradigm in psychology. Mistakes in interpretation of its assumptions and their consequences are topic for methodological and statistical discussion for over fifty years. Article presents two problems associated with NHST that are particularly prevalent in psychology: identifying non-significant results with research failure and conducting underpowered research. They can contribute to increase in exploiting questionable research practices in order to obtain desirable, significant outcomes. Three practices: p-hacking, HARKing and selective publishing are described, along with analysis of their impact on replication crisis in psychological science.

The minimum size of the bootstrap algorithm input parameters have been determined for estimation of long-term indicators of road traffic noise. Two independent simulation experiments have been performed for that purpose. The first experiment served to determine the impact of original random sample size, and the second to determine the impact of number of the bootstrap replications on the accuracy and uncertainty of estimation of long-term noise indicators. The inference has been carried out based on results of non-parametric statistical test at significance level α = 0.05. The simulation experiments have shown that estimation of long-term noise indicators with uncertainty below ±1 dB(A) requires all-day noise measurements during three randomly selected days during the year in a dense urban development. The maximum size of original random sample should not exceed n = 50 elements. The minimum number of bootstrap replications necessary for estimation should be B = 5000. The data used to the simulation experiments and carry out the analysis were results of continuous monitoring of road traffic noise recorded in 2009 in one of the main arteries of Krakow in Poland.