Manga and anime are also sources of knowledge for scientific terms: Ibaraki University and others investigate and analyze

　The survey was conducted on 234 students taking the "History of Cosmology II" course at Ibaraki University. The survey looked at 10 scientific terms (four groups): "Big Bang, dark matter, supernova, black hole; exoplanets, Hayabusa probe, astrobiology; multiverse, parallel universe (world); and ether in modern physics."

　The analysis showed that nearly two-thirds of the first sources of scientific information were educational content (classes, science museums, exhibitions/events, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, online, etc.), and nearly half of the remaining one-third were pop culture, such as anime, movies, manga, novels, and media mixes. The percentage of first sources being pop culture was high for multiverses and parallel universes (worlds), but 3% for astrobiology.

　In addition, when it comes to terms that are easily broadened in their interpretation, such as dark matter, the level of scientific understanding was lower when pop culture was the source of information than when educational content was used. On the other hand, even when knowledge was obtained from pop culture, terms with limited meanings, such as multiverses and parallel worlds, were comparable in level of understanding to educational content.

　In the future, the group plans to analyze the relationship with students' grades and other information, take into account the negative influences of pop culture and new and old media, and work on creating teaching materials that make learning science and astronomy fun.

*Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Gurren Lagann, Doctor Strange / Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, etc.

reference:[Ibaraki University] The influence of pop culture on the acquisition of knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics terminology - Is it correct to say, "Stop looking at XX and study!"?