The Flynn Effect: How Technology and Communication Continue to Grow

Today you’ll learn about how fruit flies are inspiring new forms of gameplay in basketball, how IQ levels are falling around the country, and a potential solution to difficult-to-recycle plastics! 

Basketball Positions 

• “Physics model could optimize basketball player positioning” by Kathy Hovis
• https://phys.org/news/2023-03-physics-optimize-basketball-player-positioning.html
• “Fruit flies and electrons: Researchers use physics to predict crowd behavior” by Linda B. Glaser
• https://phys.org/news/2018-08-fruit-flies-electrons-physics-crowd.html
• “Density-functional fluctuation theory of crowds” by J. Felipe Méndez-Valderrama et al.
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05750-z#Abs1

Self-Healing Plastic 

• “Researchers build hard, self-healing plastic that can be reshaped and recycled” by Wageningen University
• https://phys.org/news/2023-03-hard-self-healing-plastic-reshaped-recycled.html
• “Hard plastics can be recycled if they are constructed differently” by Maarten Smulders
• https://www.wur.nl/en/news-wur/show-home/hard-plastics-can-be-recycled-if-they-are-constructed-differently.htm

IQ Decline

• “Historic decline in IQ could stem from poor education, study shows” by Shelby Kearns
  • https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=21483
• “Looking for Flynn effects in a recent online U.S. adult sample: Examining shifts within the SAPA Project” by Elizabeth M. Dworak et al.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289623000156#f0005
• “Online tests suggest IQ scores in US dropped for the first time in nearly a century” by Bob Yirka
  • https://phys.org/news/2023-03-online-iq-scores-century.html
• “IQ Scores In The US Have Recently Dropped For First Time This Century” by Tom Hale
  • https://www.iflscience.com/iq-scores-in-the-us-have-recently-dropped-for-first-time-this-century-67907

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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/basketball-positions-self-healing-plastic-iq-decline

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