NFL players get hit, hard and often. And increasingly, we’re seeing evidence that, shockingly, taking repeated impacts to the noggin does not work wonders on your future cognitive abilities. Fortunately, some help may be coming, in the form of magnets.
To understand why, first let’s look at concussion basics. A concussion is born when you take a lot of force to the head and your brain slams against your skull. The harder your brain hits bone, the more severe the concussion. The magic number is 100 Gs, or 100 times the force of gravity. Get above that — and NFL players often can deal out 120 Gs or more in a hit — and the potential for serious injury skyrockets.
Hence, the magnets. According to Science News, a magnet in each helmet would create a sort of cushion reducing the impact of a collision on the head while still allowing players to get the sack. As we all learned in grade school, if you try to pair like pole with like on magnets, they push each other away. In theory, that force would push the players’ helmets away from each other enough to reduce the force of a helmet on helmet hit to below 100 Gs.
This method won’t prevent other methods of concussion, like hitting the ground, but it’s a start. And considering the alternative is your brain rotting inside your skull, maybe we should get these magnets out sooner rather than later.
