Minecraft is a movie and a very popular video game with iconic block graphics that characters can "mine" for building material and gems. It's also what cognitive scientist Charley Wu and his team utilized to study how people learned as they played. Their unique study focused on both individual and social learning — and they found a clear answer to which players were most successful. (Hint: Get you a player who can do both.) Their results were published recently in the journal Nature Communications. Want to hear more about new science research? Let us know by emailing [email protected] to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Hey, short wavers. Emily Kwong here. And Regina Barber. We're here with our biweekly science news roundup featuring the host of All Things Considered and fellow gamer. Pinball wizard. Juana Sars.
Hi, y'all. I'm so excited to be here. I hear that we were talking about how scientists use the video game Minecraft to study how humans learn.
That's why we invited you. Yes. Yes. And then we're going to feed you a classic Roman pasta dish with some science on the side. Love it. Then we're going to get a little serious with a possible reason why more and more young people are getting colorectal cancer.
Truly a range of options today.
Yes. All of that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Support for NPR and the following message come from Jarl and Pamela Moan, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
All right, Juana, our queen, where would you like to begin? We've got to start with the video game news, right? Yes, definitely.
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