The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on IQ Tests

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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