Magnets Protect Brains

An inventor concerned about concussions and other brain injuries caused by contact between football players is trying out a new way to keep heads from crashing together.

Two football players collide on the field and for one of them there are lifelong consequences. He suffers a concussion, an injury to his brain, that later in life impairs his ability to think clearly. Now researchers are trying to find ways to prevent this kind of injury. Raymond Colello and his team at Virginia Commonwealth University have been experimenting with magnets. Although they haven’t tried their ideas with actual football players, their laboratory results look promising.

What are they doing? They are putting special magnets inside of football helmets. A helmet is designed to spread out the force of contact but what if the helmet helped prevent the contact? That is the idea of using magnets. Some magnets are very strong for their size and weight. Colello is using a type of rare earth magnet made from neodymium. When placed 0.6 centimeter (0.25 inch) away from each other, two of the magnets (with their like poles facing one another) exert nearly 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of repulsive force.

In his research, three magnets are placed inside a helmet and the helmet is tested by dropping weights from various heights. His data show that the magnets reduce the risk of concussions by 80%. Adding the magnets to helmets would increase the cost by $50 to $100. How much is it worth to save someone’s brain?

For more information see: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/11/could-magnets-helmets-reduce-football-concussions

https://www.apexmagnets.com/news-how-tos/could-magnets-make-football-helmets-safer/

More about football, concussions and the brain: https://www.vox.com/2014/9/5/6106851/nfl-football-concussions