NFL players suffered 266 concussions in the 2011 season. That's fewer than the season before, but the sport still takes a toll. A recent study on repeated mild traumatic brain injury showed that 68 of the 85 study subjects—including 50 football players—had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease. Virginia Tech biomedical engineers Steven Rowson and Stefan Duma, who designed the first independent rating system for football helmets, are setting out to lower that number by putting the headware through more realistic tests. The pair are switching from dropping helmets to using pistons to ram them. A piston impacts the helmeted fake head, which is attached to a pliable neck, at forces up to 150 g's. The research will increase the reliability of the safety ratings and make football players safer—at least as safe as they can be while getting pummeled by 250-pound linebackers.
For a brief history of football helmet technology, read on.