Smart Foam Detects Concussion Risk

Guest: Jake Merrell, President, XOnano Smartfoam, Mechanical Engineering student, Brigham Young University A few weeks ago, researchers at Boston University announced they may have found a way to detect the degenerative disease CTE in football players while they’re still alive, which is a big deal because right now the only way to know if someone has it is by slicing up their brain after death. Which is obviously way too late to help the player. The focus on preventing concussion in football may also be of limited help in preventing CTE, because the latest science suggests it’s not those big bell-ringers that are the main culprit. Rather, it’s a lifetime of repetitive hits to the head that don’t even register as a problem for the player or coaches on the sideline.  But now those hits can register on the sidelines, if the player is wearing a helmet outfitted with sensors developed at BYU.