Economists Linos and Severnini measured pollution effects on cognition using more than 4 million Lumosity gameplay observations from over 100,000 users across the US over 3 years.
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At 26:46 · chapter starts 21:40
Research by economists James Archsmith, Anthony Hayes, and Sudeh Saberian showed that MLB umpires made more wrong calls on high-pollution days — the first strong evidence that air pollution impairs professional adult cognition. But Linos saw its limits: one population, one task. She and her co-author Edson Severnini gained access to Lumosity's Human Cognition Project, pulling data from over 100,000 US users playing games measuring verbal ability, attention, flexibility, working memory, math, processing speed, and problem-solving across more than 4 million gameplay observations over 3 years. [1] — Andrea Linos "Researchers analyzing baseball umpires found they made more wrong calls on high-pollution days. It was the first strong evidence that air p…" 21:41 To handle the fact that pollution isn't measured 'attached to bodies,' the team used wind direction as an instrument: when wind carries pollution from other locations into an area, all residents receive roughly the same dose, creating a natural experiment. The stage is set for a headline result that would shake even the experts.
Researchers analyzing baseball umpires found they made more wrong calls on high-pollution days. It was the first strong evidence that air pollution impairs professional adult performance — not just students taking tests.
Lumosity claims more than 100 million users across nearly 200 countries, giving researchers an unusually large and geographically diverse dataset for studying cognition.
Because pollution monitors aren't strapped to individuals' bodies, measuring exact exposure is hard. Linos and Severnini solved this by using wind direction: when wind pushes pollution from other locations into an area, every resident gets roughly the same dose — making it a natural experiment in a population.
Even when air pollution stays below EPA and WHO guidelines, cognition is measurably impaired across seven cognitive domains — including memory, attention, flexibility, and problem-solving. The biggest effects hit adults under 50.
The Cambrian Explosion 600 million years ago produced 10 different body types competing to become dominant, with our head-body-limbs form winning almost by accident.
Dinosaurs went extinct 68 million years ago due to an asteroid impact; had this not happened, humans would not exist today.
Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, after suffering a stroke that temporarily dissolved her brain's filtering mechanisms, spent 8 years recovering cognitive abilities while longing to return to the blissful 'unfiltered' state.
Hippos are the second biggest animal killers of humans in Africa after mosquitoes, despite not being predators — they attack when they feel blocked from water.
The universe is 13.8 billion years old; a human life of 80 years is almost incomprehensibly small in comparison, a fact Greene uses to cultivate humility and awe.
The widely cited ego-depletion model — the idea that willpower is a finite resource that gets depleted — failed to replicate in follow-up studies.
Humans are estimated to have 5,000–7,000 thoughts per day, yet can recall essentially none of them afterward, highlighting why in-the-moment emotional tracking matters.
A large Harvard study found that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind — people report greater happiness when their attention is tethered to the present, even if the task is unpleasant.
A key study finding that we have a 'credit card's worth of plastic' in our bodies was likely skewed because researchers used nitrile gloves that shed plastic particles onto the microplastic detector.
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