New helmet design can deal with sports’ twists and turns

As a neurologist, Robert Knight has seen what happens when the brain crashes around violently inside the skull. And he's aware of the often tragic consequences. Throughout his 40 years as an academic researcher and medical doctor, the University of California, Berkeley, professor of psychology and neuroscience has known students and friends whose lives and careers were derailed by head injuries from bicycle and car crashes. He's held in his hands brains destroyed by accidental blows to the head. Not surprisingly, he cringes when he imagines his young grandchildren falling off a bike and hitting their heads. So, Knight invented a better helmet - one with more effective padding to dampen the effects of a direct hit, but more importantly, an innovative outer shell that rotates to absorb twisting forces that today's helmets don't protect against. His design is flexible enough to provide protection for football and hockey players - who receive the most severe and most frequent blows to the head - as well as police, soldiers, snowboarders and anyone who wears a helmet or hard hat.